Fairview, MT
Fairview wildfire risk explained
Fairview sits at the 54th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 660 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Fairview at the 53rd percentile, close to its 54th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 88.6% of Fairview's 660 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 11.4% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Fairview against the rest of the country
Inside Montana, Fairview sits at just the 17th percentile even though it scores 54th 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, Fairview ranks 14,502 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,061 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 394 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
Fairview's elevated wildfire rating (54th 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.
Hardening a home in Fairview
Because 88.6% of Fairview'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 Fairview's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 660 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Fairview. The exposure-zones guide covers what Fairview's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.