Helena, MT
Helena wildfire risk explained
Helena sits at the 82nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 15,600 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 Helena at the 76th percentile, close to its 82nd-percentile risk score.
Helena's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 77.1% of Helena's 15,600 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 4.4% Direct and 18.6% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 15,600 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Helena compares
Inside Montana, Helena sits at just the 55th percentile even though it scores 82nd 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, Helena ranks 5,834 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 945 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 212 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 82nd percentile nationally, Helena carries the very 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.
Hardening a home in Helena
Helena's 77.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Helena's figures come from
Helena's 82nd-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 Helena's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.