Pelkie, MI
How exposed is Pelkie to wildfire?
Pelkie sits at the 61st 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 81 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 Pelkie at the 65th percentile, close to its 61st-percentile risk score.
Pelkie's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 91.4% of Pelkie's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 8.6% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 74 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Pelkie against the rest of the country
Within Michigan, Pelkie ranks higher (98th percentile) than it does nationally (61st) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Pelkie ranks 12,232 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,848 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 18 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Pelkie and the insurance market
Pelkie's 61st-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.
Hardening a home in Pelkie
With 91.4% of Pelkie in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Pelkie's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 81 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Pelkie. The exposure-zones guide covers what Pelkie's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.