Hillside Colony, MT
Hillside Colony wildfire risk explained
Hillside Colony's 49 buildings earn a 25th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hillside Colony's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 22nd percentile nationally.
Where Hillside Colony's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Hillside Colony (79.6% of 49 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 20.4% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Hillside Colony ranks
Hillside Colony's 25th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 4th ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 21 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hillside Colony ranks 23,735 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,960 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 458 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
Hillside Colony's moderate rating (25th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Hillside Colony's 79.6% 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.
More on how this number was built
Hillside Colony's 25th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Hillside Colony, see the exposure-zones guide.