Bass Lake, CA
Bass Lake wildfire risk explained
Bass Lake sits at the 99th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,128 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bass Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 98th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Bass Lake's 1,128 counted buildings, 49.5% carry Direct exposure and only 5.6% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Bass Lake compares
Bass Lake scores 99th nationally and 88th within California — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bass Lake ranks 401 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,093 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 191 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Bass Lake and the insurance market
Bass Lake's 99th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 49.5% of Bass Lake in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,128 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bass Lake. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bass Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.