Monteagle, TN
Monteagle wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Monteagle at the 76th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,103 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Monteagle at the 79th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Monteagle's buildings actually sit
Of Monteagle's 1,103 counted buildings, 73.6% 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.
How Monteagle compares
There's little gap between Monteagle's 76th national percentile and its 79th percentile inside Tennessee, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Monteagle ranks 7,539 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,265 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 108 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Monteagle
At the 76th percentile nationally, Monteagle carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Monteagle
Monteagle's 73.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Monteagle's figures come from
Monteagle's 76th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Monteagle's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.