Checotah, OK
Checotah, OK's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Checotah sits at the 91st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 2,110 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 Checotah at the 93rd percentile, close to its 91st-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Checotah's buildings (66.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Checotah against the rest of the country
Checotah's 91st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 54th ranking inside Oklahoma does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 37 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Checotah ranks 2,715 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,166 by building count (1 is largest). Within Oklahoma alone, it ranks 383 of 834 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Oklahoma on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 91st percentile nationally, Checotah carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Checotah's 66.6% 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.
Where Checotah's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Checotah's 2,715-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Checotah's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.