West Branch, IA
How exposed is West Branch to wildfire?
West Branch's 1,115 buildings earn a 27th-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.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts West Branch at the 28th percentile, close to its 27th-percentile risk score.
Where West Branch's buildings actually sit
83.8% of West Branch's 1,115 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 16.2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How West Branch compares
West Branch scores 27th nationally and 42nd within Iowa — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Branch ranks 22,875 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,185 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 593 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
West Branch's moderate wildfire rating (27th 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
With 83.8% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, West Branch gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
West Branch's 27th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond West Branch, see the exposure-zones guide.