Tellico Plains, TN
Tellico Plains wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Tellico Plains at the 90th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 610 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Tellico Plains at the 91st percentile, close to its 90th-percentile risk score.
Tellico Plains's building exposure, zone by zone
610 buildings are counted in Tellico Plains, and 53.3% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 46.7% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Tellico Plains compares
Tellico Plains's risk sits at a similar level relative to Tennessee (99th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (90th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tellico Plains ranks 3,194 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,697 by building count (1 is largest). Within Tennessee alone, it ranks 6 of 502 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Tennessee on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Tellico Plains
Tellico Plains's very high rating (90th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Tellico Plains (53.3% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Tellico Plains's figures come from
Tellico Plains's 90th-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 Tellico Plains's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.