Huntsville, TN
How exposed is Huntsville to wildfire?
Huntsville sits at the 86th 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 1,099 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Huntsville at the 89th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 60.2% of Huntsville's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 39.8% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 662 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Huntsville against the rest of the country
Huntsville scores 86th nationally and 96th 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, Huntsville ranks 4,518 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,282 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 19 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Huntsville
Huntsville's 86th-percentile, very 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Huntsville (60.2%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Huntsville's 86th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Huntsville, see the exposure-zones guide.