Loring Colony, MT
How exposed is Loring Colony to wildfire?
USFS scores Loring Colony at the 45th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 26 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Loring Colony at the 43rd percentile, close to its 45th-percentile risk score.
Loring Colony's building exposure, zone by zone
26 buildings are counted in Loring Colony, and 88.5% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 11.5% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Loring Colony against the rest of the country
Inside Montana, Loring Colony sits at just the 9th percentile even though it scores 45th 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, Loring Colony ranks 17,459 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,403 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 432 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
Loring Colony's elevated rating (45th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Loring Colony
Loring Colony's 88.5% 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 Loring Colony's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Loring Colony's 17,459-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Loring Colony's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.