Bear Valley (Alpine), CA
Bear Valley (Alpine), CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bear Valley (Alpine) lands at the 91st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 400 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bear Valley (Alpine)'s burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 90th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Bear Valley (Alpine)'s 400 counted buildings, 88.8% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Bear Valley (Alpine) compares
Inside California, Bear Valley (Alpine) sits at just the 65th percentile even though it scores 91st nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bear Valley (Alpine) ranks 2,697 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,202 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 551 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
Because Bear Valley (Alpine) 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.
Hardening a home in Bear Valley (Alpine)
Bear Valley (Alpine)'s 88.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 400 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bear Valley (Alpine). For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bear Valley (Alpine), see the exposure-zones guide.