Chelsea, AL
Chelsea wildfire risk explained
Chelsea sits at the 79th 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 5,741 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 Chelsea at the 81st percentile, close to its 79th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 63.5% of Chelsea's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 36.5% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 3,643 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most. At 5,741 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Chelsea compares
Chelsea scores 79th nationally and 71st within Alabama — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chelsea ranks 6,700 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,010 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 173 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Chelsea and the insurance market
At the 79th percentile nationally, Chelsea carries the 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
With 63.5% of Chelsea 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 Chelsea's figures come from
Chelsea's 79th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Chelsea's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.