Butte, AK
How exposed is Butte to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Butte at the 52nd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,289 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Butte at the 51st national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Butte's buildings actually sit
2,289 buildings are counted in Butte, and 94% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Butte compares
Butte's risk sits at a similar level relative to Alaska (41st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (52nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Butte ranks 15,147 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,724 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alaska alone, it ranks 189 of 322 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alaska on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Butte's elevated wildfire rating (52nd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Butte's 94% 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 Butte's figures come from
Butte's 52nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Butte's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.