Waterville, IA
Waterville, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Waterville's 116 buildings earn a 38th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Waterville at the 41st national percentile — 2 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
116 buildings are counted in Waterville, and 100% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Waterville compares
Within Iowa, Waterville ranks higher (53rd percentile) than it does nationally (38th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waterville ranks 19,471 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,357 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 476 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Waterville
Waterville's moderate wildfire rating (38th 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
Waterville's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Waterville's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Waterville's 19,471-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Waterville's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.