St. Charles, IA
How exposed is St. Charles to wildfire?
St. Charles's 414 buildings earn a 66th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts St. Charles at the 67th percentile, close to its 66th-percentile risk score.
Where St. Charles's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 77.8% of St. Charles's 414 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 22.2% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
St. Charles against the rest of the country
St. Charles's 89th-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 66th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Charles ranks 10,840 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,943 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 113 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
St. Charles and the insurance market
St. Charles's high rating (66th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in St. Charles
St. Charles's 77.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 414 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Charles. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond St. Charles, see the exposure-zones guide.