Westside, IA
Westside, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Westside lands at the 12th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 281 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Westside at the 10th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
76.9% of Westside's 281 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 23.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Westside against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Westside's 12th national percentile and its 22nd percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Westside ranks 27,760 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,149 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 797 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
Westside's low wildfire rating (12th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 76.9% of Westside 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 Westside's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Westside's 27,760-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Westside's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.