Plains, MT
Plains wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Plains lands at the 74th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 787 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Plains's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 73rd percentile nationally.
Where Plains's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Plains (91.6% of 787 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 8.4% sit in the Direct zone.
Plains against the rest of the country
Plains ranks lower within Montana (43rd percentile statewide) than its 74th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Plains ranks 8,291 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,750 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 269 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Plains
Plains's 74th-percentile, 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Plains's 91.6% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Plains's 8,291-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Plains, see the exposure-zones guide.