Washta, IA
Washta wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Washta lands at the 50th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 218 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Washta at the 49th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Washta's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 33.9% of Washta's 218 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 66.1% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Washta compares
Compare Washta's two percentiles: 68th within Iowa, only 50th nationally — a gap of 19 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Washta ranks 15,845 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,198 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 323 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Washta and the insurance market
Washta's elevated wildfire rating (50th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 66.1% of Washta 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.
Where Washta's figures come from
Washta's 50th-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 Washta's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.