Birney, MT
Birney wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Birney lands at the 99th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 58 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Birney at the 99th percentile, close to its 99th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Birney's 58 counted buildings, 100% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Birney ranks
Birney's risk sits at a similar level relative to Montana (99th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (99th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Birney ranks 448 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,714 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 5 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Birney
Birney's 99th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Birney's 100% 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.
Where Birney's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 58 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Birney. The exposure-zones guide covers what Birney's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.