Helena West Side, MT
Helena West Side wildfire risk explained
Helena West Side's 1,214 buildings earn a 92nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Helena West Side at the 88th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Helena West Side's buildings actually sit
Most of Helena West Side's buildings (52.9%) 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.
Where Helena West Side ranks
Helena West Side scores 92nd nationally and 81st within Montana — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Helena West Side ranks 2,554 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,569 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 91 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 92nd percentile nationally, Helena West Side 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 52.9% of Helena West Side'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 Helena West Side's figures come from
Helena West Side's 92nd-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 West Side's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.