Spencer, IA
Spencer wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Spencer at the 49th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 5,798 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Spencer at the 45th percentile, close to its 49th-percentile risk score.
Spencer's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Spencer's buildings (84.6% of 5,798) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 5,798 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Spencer against the rest of the country
Compare Spencer's two percentiles: 67th within Iowa, only 49th nationally — a gap of 19 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Spencer ranks 16,227 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,980 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 334 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 49th national percentile, Spencer rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Spencer
With 84.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Spencer gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Spencer's figures come from
Spencer's 49th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Spencer's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.