Red Lodge, MT
How exposed is Red Lodge to wildfire?
USFS scores Red Lodge at the 94th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 2,032 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Red Lodge's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 95th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
2,032 buildings are counted in Red Lodge, and 70.7% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 29.3% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Red Lodge compares
Red Lodge scores 94th nationally and 86th within Montana — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Red Lodge ranks 1,830 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,380 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 66 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
Red Lodge's 94th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Red Lodge's 70.7% 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
Red Lodge's 94th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Red Lodge, see the exposure-zones guide.