Highwood, MT
How exposed is Highwood to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Highwood lands at the 61st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 156 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Highwood at the 59th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
156 buildings are counted in Highwood, and 98.1% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Highwood compares
Inside Montana, Highwood sits at just the 26th percentile even though it scores 61st 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, Highwood ranks 12,390 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,624 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 351 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Highwood and the insurance market
Highwood's 61st-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.
Hardening a home in Highwood
Because Direct exposure dominates in Highwood (98.1%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Highwood's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 156 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Highwood. The exposure-zones guide covers what Highwood's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.