Acalanes Ridge, CA
Acalanes Ridge wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Acalanes Ridge at the 64th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 530 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Acalanes Ridge at the 65th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Acalanes Ridge's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 46% of Acalanes Ridge's 530 buildings carry Direct exposure and 4.9% carry Indirect; the remaining 49.1% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Acalanes Ridge compares
Acalanes Ridge ranks lower within California (22nd percentile statewide) than its 64th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Acalanes Ridge ranks 11,397 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,857 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,222 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Acalanes Ridge's 64th-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 49.1% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Acalanes Ridge gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Acalanes Ridge's figures come from
Acalanes Ridge's 64th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Acalanes Ridge's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.