West Union, IA
How exposed is West Union to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, West Union lands at the 13th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 1,398 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks West Union at the 13th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
West Union's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of West Union's buildings (93.2% of 1,398) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
West Union against the rest of the country
West Union's risk sits at a similar level relative to Iowa (23rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (13th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Union ranks 27,477 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,635 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 787 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 Union's low rating (13th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 93.2% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, West Union 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind West Union's 27,477-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond West Union, see the exposure-zones guide.