Memphis, AL
Memphis wildfire risk explained
Memphis sits at the 52nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 22 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Memphis at the 54th national percentile — 2 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
Of Memphis's 22 counted buildings, 100% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first. This is a small settlement by building count — 22 total — so these shares describe a handful of structures, not a statistical average across thousands.
Where Memphis ranks
Memphis's 52nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 9th ranking inside Alabama does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 44 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Memphis ranks 14,990 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,438 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 543 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Memphis
At the 52nd national percentile, Memphis rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Memphis (100%), 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
Memphis's 52nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. At 22 buildings, Memphis is close to the size where USFS's data gets thin — the data-quality guide explains why 517 places nationally get no score at all.