Bluff City, TN
Bluff City, TN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Bluff City's 1,047 buildings earn a 67th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bluff City's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 71st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Bluff City (67.1% of 1,047 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 33% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Bluff City ranks
Bluff City scores 67th nationally and 59th within Tennessee — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bluff City ranks 10,573 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,606 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 207 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Bluff City's 67th-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
Bluff City's 67.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Bluff City's 67th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Bluff City, see the exposure-zones guide.