Vail, IA
How exposed is Vail to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Vail at the 18th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 276 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Vail's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 16th percentile nationally.
Where Vail's buildings actually sit
Only 12% of Vail's 276 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 88% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Vail ranks
Vail's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (29th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (18th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Vail ranks 25,773 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,319 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 718 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Vail and the insurance market
At the 18th national percentile, Vail rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 88% of Vail outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Vail's 18th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Vail, see the exposure-zones guide.