Elizabethton, TN
Elizabethton wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Elizabethton at the 67th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 6,605 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Elizabethton's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 71st percentile nationally.
Elizabethton's building exposure, zone by zone
6,605 buildings are counted in Elizabethton, and 68% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 31.8% in Direct exposure or the 0.2% rated Minimal. At 6,605 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Elizabethton ranks
Elizabethton scores 67th nationally and 60th 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, Elizabethton ranks 10,410 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,625 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 202 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Elizabethton
Elizabethton'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
Elizabethton's 68% 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 Elizabethton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Elizabethton's 10,410-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Elizabethton's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.