Kicking Horse, MT
How exposed is Kicking Horse to wildfire?
Kicking Horse's 93 buildings earn a 85th-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.)
Separately from the risk score above, Kicking Horse's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 88th percentile nationally.
Where Kicking Horse's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 80.7% of Kicking Horse's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 19.4% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 75 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Kicking Horse against the rest of the country
Inside Montana, Kicking Horse sits at just the 63rd percentile even though it scores 85th 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, Kicking Horse ranks 4,702 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,362 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 176 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Kicking Horse and the insurance market
Kicking Horse's very high rating (85th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Kicking Horse
Because Direct exposure dominates in Kicking Horse (80.7%), 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 93 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Kicking Horse. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Kicking Horse, see the exposure-zones guide.