Townsend, MT
Townsend wildfire risk explained
Townsend sits at the 61st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,278 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Townsend's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 56th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 94.3% of Townsend's 1,278 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 5.7% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Townsend against the rest of the country
Inside Montana, Townsend sits at just the 27th percentile even though it scores 61st 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, Townsend ranks 12,327 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,208 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 348 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Townsend
Townsend's 61st-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Townsend's 94.3% 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 Townsend's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,278 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Townsend. The exposure-zones guide covers what Townsend's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.