Rocky Top, TN
Rocky Top wildfire risk explained
Rocky Top sits at the 83rd 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 1,000 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 Rocky Top at the 86th percentile, close to its 83rd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Rocky Top's buildings (83%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Rocky Top compares
There's little gap between Rocky Top's 83rd national percentile and its 93rd percentile inside Tennessee, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Rocky Top ranks 5,270 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,938 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 39 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Rocky Top
At the 83rd percentile nationally, Rocky Top carries the very 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Rocky Top (83% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Rocky Top's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,000 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Rocky Top. The exposure-zones guide covers what Rocky Top's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.