Wadena, IA
Wadena, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Wadena lands at the 45th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 182 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wadena at the 47th percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
Wadena's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Wadena (87.9% of 182 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 12.1% sit in the Direct zone.
Wadena against the rest of the country
Compare Wadena's two percentiles: 62nd within Iowa, only 45th nationally — a gap of 17 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wadena ranks 17,267 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,532 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 390 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Wadena and the insurance market
Wadena's elevated wildfire rating (45th 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 Wadena
Wadena's 87.9% 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.
Where Wadena's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Wadena's 17,267-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wadena's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.