Ismay, MT
How exposed is Ismay to wildfire?
Ismay's 62 buildings earn a 90th-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 Ismay at the 91st national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Ismay: 100% of its 62 buildings, versus 0% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Ismay compares
Ismay's risk sits at a similar level relative to Montana (77th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (90th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ismay ranks 3,057 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,584 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 108 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ismay
Ismay's 90th-percentile, very 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Ismay (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Ismay's 90th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Ismay, see the exposure-zones guide.