Baker, MT
How exposed is Baker to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Baker at the 74th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,310 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Baker's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 73rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 98% of Baker's 1,310 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 1.9% Direct and 0.1% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Baker ranks
Baker ranks lower within Montana (44th percentile statewide) than its 74th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Baker ranks 8,194 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,022 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 267 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Baker
Baker's 74th-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 98% of Baker's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Baker's 74th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Baker, see the exposure-zones guide.