Cotter, AR
How exposed is Cotter to wildfire?
Cotter sits at the 80th 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 629 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 Cotter at the 82nd percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
Cotter's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Cotter (53.3% of 629 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 46.7% sit in the Direct zone.
How Cotter compares
There's little gap between Cotter's 80th national percentile and its 79th percentile inside Arkansas, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cotter ranks 6,448 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,455 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arkansas alone, it ranks 127 of 614 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arkansas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cotter
Cotter's high rating (80th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Cotter's 53.3% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 629 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Cotter. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Cotter, see the exposure-zones guide.