Chelsea, MI
Chelsea wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Chelsea lands at the 20th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 2,228 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 Chelsea at the 21st percentile, close to its 20th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Chelsea (65.2% of 2,228 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 17.4% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Chelsea ranks
Chelsea's 66th-percentile standing inside Michigan outpaces its 20th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Chelsea ranks 25,277 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,867 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 250 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Chelsea
At the 20th national percentile, Chelsea rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Chelsea's 65.2% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Chelsea's 25,277-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Chelsea, see the exposure-zones guide.