Winifred, MT
How exposed is Winifred to wildfire?
USFS scores Winifred at the 65th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 186 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Winifred at the 62nd percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
Where Winifred's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Winifred (62.4% of 186 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 37.6% sit in the Direct zone.
How Winifred compares
Winifred's 65th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 32nd ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 33 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Winifred ranks 11,096 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,396 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 322 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Winifred and the insurance market
Winifred's high rating (65th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Winifred
Because 62.4% of Winifred's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Winifred's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 186 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Winifred. The exposure-zones guide covers what Winifred's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.