Gallatin Gateway, MT
Gallatin Gateway wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Gallatin Gateway lands at the 74th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 939 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gallatin Gateway's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 74th percentile nationally.
Gallatin Gateway's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 77.2% of Gallatin Gateway's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 2.8% Indirect share and far above its 20% Minimal share — a profile where 725 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Gallatin Gateway against the rest of the country
Gallatin Gateway's 74th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 43rd ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 31 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gallatin Gateway ranks 8,357 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,402 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 272 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
Gallatin Gateway's 74th-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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Gallatin Gateway (77.2%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Gallatin Gateway's 8,357-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gallatin Gateway, see the exposure-zones guide.