Spokane Creek, MT
How exposed is Spokane Creek to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Spokane Creek lands at the 84th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 339 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Spokane Creek at the 80th percentile, close to its 84th-percentile risk score.
Where Spokane Creek's buildings actually sit
99.4% of Spokane Creek's 339 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 337 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Spokane Creek compares
Inside Montana, Spokane Creek sits at just the 62nd percentile even though it scores 84th 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, Spokane Creek ranks 4,920 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,596 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 183 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 84th percentile nationally, Spokane Creek 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Spokane Creek (99.4%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Spokane Creek's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Spokane Creek's 4,920-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Spokane Creek's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.