Altamont, UT
How exposed is Altamont to wildfire?
USFS scores Altamont at the 72nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 189 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Altamont at the 71st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Altamont's buildings actually sit
189 buildings are counted in Altamont, and 52.4% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 47.6% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Altamont ranks
Altamont's 72nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 30th ranking inside Utah does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Altamont ranks 8,807 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,298 by building count (1 is largest). Within Utah alone, it ranks 228 of 326 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Utah on its state page.
Altamont and the insurance market
Altamont's high rating (72nd 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
Altamont's 52.4% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 189 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Altamont. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Altamont, see the exposure-zones guide.