Waterloo, IN
Waterloo wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Waterloo at the 4th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 1,197 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Waterloo at the 4th percentile, close to its 4th-percentile risk score.
Waterloo's building exposure, zone by zone
Waterloo rates 87.6% Minimal exposure against just 12.5% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 1,197 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Waterloo compares
Compare Waterloo's two percentiles: 25th within Indiana, only 4th nationally — a gap of 22 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waterloo ranks 30,411 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,661 by building count (1 is largest). Within Indiana alone, it ranks 724 of 967 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Indiana on its state page.
Waterloo and the insurance market
Waterloo's low rating (4th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Waterloo
Even with 87.6% of Waterloo 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 Waterloo's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,197 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Waterloo. The exposure-zones guide covers what Waterloo's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.