Yaak, MT
Yaak, MT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Yaak at the 96th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 544 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Yaak at the 94th percentile, close to its 96th-percentile risk score.
Where Yaak's buildings actually sit
544 buildings are counted in Yaak, and 100% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Yaak against the rest of the country
Yaak scores 96th nationally and 90th 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, Yaak ranks 1,417 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,658 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 47 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Yaak
Yaak's 96th-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.
Hardening a home in Yaak
Because Direct exposure dominates in Yaak (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Yaak's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Yaak's 1,417-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Yaak's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.