Villisca, IA
Villisca wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Villisca at the 58th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 838 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Villisca at the 59th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
86.5% of Villisca's 838 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 13.5% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Villisca compares
Villisca's 80th-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 58th 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, Villisca ranks 13,266 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,269 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 201 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Villisca and the insurance market
At the 58th national percentile, Villisca rates elevated 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
Villisca's 86.5% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 838 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Villisca. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Villisca, see the exposure-zones guide.