Flaxville, MT
How exposed is Flaxville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Flaxville at the 71st national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 108 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Flaxville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 70th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Flaxville's buildings (75.9%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Flaxville compares
Inside Montana, Flaxville sits at just the 40th percentile even though it scores 71st 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, Flaxville ranks 9,232 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,699 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 285 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
At the 71st percentile nationally, Flaxville carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 75.9% of Flaxville'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 Flaxville's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 108 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Flaxville. The exposure-zones guide covers what Flaxville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.