Edgar, MT
Edgar wildfire risk explained
Edgar sits at the 72nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 116 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Edgar at the 69th national percentile — 3 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
Indirect exposure is dominant in Edgar (75.9% of 116 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 24.1% sit in the Direct zone.
Edgar against the rest of the country
Inside Montana, Edgar sits at just the 41st percentile even though it scores 72nd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Edgar ranks 8,921 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,365 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 279 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
Edgar's 72nd-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.
Hardening a home in Edgar
Because 75.9% of Edgar'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.
Where Edgar's figures come from
Edgar's 72nd-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 Edgar's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.