Biltmore, TN
How exposed is Biltmore to wildfire?
Biltmore sits at the 65th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,156 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Biltmore at the 68th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
Biltmore's building exposure, zone by zone
1,156 buildings are counted in Biltmore, and 66.4% 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 Biltmore compares
There's little gap between Biltmore's 65th national percentile and its 57th percentile inside Tennessee, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Biltmore ranks 11,203 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,911 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 217 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Biltmore and the insurance market
Biltmore's 65th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With 66.4% of Biltmore in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Biltmore's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,156 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Biltmore. The exposure-zones guide covers what Biltmore's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.