Sewanee, TN
Sewanee wildfire risk explained
Sewanee sits at the 75th 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 673 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 Sewanee at the 78th percentile, close to its 75th-percentile risk score.
Sewanee's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 81.7% of Sewanee's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 18.3% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 550 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Sewanee compares
Sewanee scores 75th nationally and 77th 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, Sewanee ranks 7,858 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,946 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 117 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Sewanee and the insurance market
Sewanee's 75th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Sewanee (81.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Sewanee's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Sewanee's 7,858-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sewanee's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.