Ennis, MT
Ennis wildfire risk explained
Ennis's 754 buildings earn a 76th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Ennis's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 71st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
74.5% of Ennis's 754 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 25.5% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Ennis compares
Ennis's 76th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 47th ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 29 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ennis ranks 7,600 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,080 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 254 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
Ennis's 76th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Ennis (74.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Ennis's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ennis's 7,600-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ennis's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.