Sloan, IA
How exposed is Sloan to wildfire?
Sloan sits at the 42nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 620 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sloan at the 42nd percentile, close to its 42nd-percentile risk score.
Where Sloan's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 91.6% of Sloan's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 8.4% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Sloan ranks
Compare Sloan's two percentiles: 58th within Iowa, only 42nd nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sloan ranks 18,147 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,555 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 425 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Sloan
Sloan's elevated wildfire rating (42nd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Sloan
Sloan's 91.6% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Sloan's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 620 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Sloan. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sloan's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.