Hilldale Colony, MT
Hilldale Colony wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Hilldale Colony at the 12th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 36 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Hilldale Colony at the 10th percentile, close to its 12th-percentile risk score.
Where Hilldale Colony's buildings actually sit
36 buildings are counted in Hilldale Colony, and 88.9% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 11.1% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Hilldale Colony against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Hilldale Colony's 12th national percentile and its 2nd percentile inside Montana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hilldale Colony ranks 27,707 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,256 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 464 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 12th national percentile, Hilldale Colony rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Hilldale Colony's 88.9% 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 Hilldale Colony's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hilldale Colony's 27,707-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hilldale Colony's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.