Big Arm, MT
Big Arm wildfire risk explained
Big Arm's 236 buildings earn a 87th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Big Arm at the 85th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Big Arm's 236 counted buildings, 76.3% carry Direct exposure and only 11.4% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Big Arm against the rest of the country
Big Arm ranks lower within Montana (68th percentile statewide) than its 87th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Big Arm ranks 4,004 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,598 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 150 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Big Arm
Big Arm's 87th-percentile, very 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.
Hardening a home in Big Arm
Big Arm's 76.3% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Big Arm's 87th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Big Arm, see the exposure-zones guide.