Alameda, CA
How exposed is Alameda to wildfire?
Alameda's 23,561 buildings earn a 33rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Alameda at the 41st percentile, close to its 33rd-percentile risk score.
Alameda's building exposure, zone by zone
99.5% of Alameda's 23,561 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 0.5% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 23,561 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Alameda against the rest of the country
Alameda's 33rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 3rd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 29 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Alameda ranks 21,262 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 549 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,518 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Alameda and the insurance market
Because Alameda is in California, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. The state's FAIR Plan alone carried 668,609 policies by the end of 2025. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 99.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Alameda gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Alameda's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 23,561 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Alameda. The exposure-zones guide covers what Alameda's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.