West Yellowstone, MT
West Yellowstone, MT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
West Yellowstone sits at the 73rd 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 1,074 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts West Yellowstone at the 72nd percentile, close to its 73rd-percentile risk score.
West Yellowstone's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of West Yellowstone's buildings (88.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where West Yellowstone ranks
West Yellowstone's 73rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 43rd ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 31 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, West Yellowstone ranks 8,382 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,439 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 273 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
West Yellowstone and the insurance market
West Yellowstone's 73rd-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
West Yellowstone's 88.6% 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.
Where West Yellowstone's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,074 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for West Yellowstone. The exposure-zones guide covers what West Yellowstone's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.