Apple Valley, CA
Apple Valley wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Apple Valley lands at the 77th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 30,052 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Apple Valley at the 77th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Apple Valley's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 38.2% of Apple Valley's 30,052 buildings carry Direct exposure and 15.4% carry Indirect; the remaining 46.5% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 30,052 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Apple Valley ranks
Apple Valley's 77th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 36th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 41 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Apple Valley ranks 7,306 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 383 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,008 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Apple Valley
Apple Valley's 77th-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
Even with 46.5% of Apple Valley outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Apple Valley's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 30,052 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Apple Valley. The exposure-zones guide covers what Apple Valley's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.