Bigfork, MT
How exposed is Bigfork to wildfire?
USFS scores Bigfork at the 89th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 4,451 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bigfork at the 90th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Bigfork's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Bigfork: 82.2% of its 4,451 buildings, versus 12.8% Indirect and 5% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Bigfork compares
There's little gap between Bigfork's 89th national percentile and its 74th percentile inside Montana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bigfork ranks 3,623 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,836 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 126 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 89th percentile nationally, Bigfork carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Bigfork
With 82.2% of Bigfork in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 4,451 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bigfork. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bigfork, see the exposure-zones guide.