Lakeside, MT
How exposed is Lakeside to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Lakeside lands at the 88th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 2,007 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lakeside at the 88th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Lakeside's buildings actually sit
82.6% of Lakeside's 2,007 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,657 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 14% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 3.5% are Minimal.
Where Lakeside ranks
Inside Montana, Lakeside sits at just the 72nd percentile even though it scores 88th 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, Lakeside ranks 3,689 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,460 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 134 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 88th percentile nationally, Lakeside carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
With 82.6% of Lakeside in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lakeside's 3,689-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Lakeside, see the exposure-zones guide.