Bear Valley Springs, CA
How exposed is Bear Valley Springs to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Bear Valley Springs at the 99th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 3,775 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bear Valley Springs's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 98th percentile nationally.
Where Bear Valley Springs's buildings actually sit
3,775 buildings are counted in Bear Valley Springs, and 99.6% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Bear Valley Springs compares
Bear Valley Springs's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (86th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (99th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bear Valley Springs ranks 465 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,449 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 211 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Bear Valley Springs and the insurance market
Bear Valley Springs sits in California, one of two states that legally require a wildfire-risk disclosure at sale. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, ended 2025 with 668,609 residential policies after adding 21,859 in Q4 alone — the kind of market shift a 99th-percentile score like Bear Valley Springs's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Bear Valley Springs (99.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,775 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Bear Valley Springs. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bear Valley Springs, see the exposure-zones guide.