Bend, CA
Bend wildfire risk explained
Bend sits at the 97th 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 535 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Bend at the 98th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Bend's building exposure, zone by zone
535 buildings are counted in Bend, and 99.4% 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 Bend compares
Inside California, Bend sits at just the 80th percentile even though it scores 97th 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, Bend ranks 903 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,794 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 316 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Bend and the insurance market
Because Bend 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 Bend
With 99.4% of Bend 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
Bend's 97th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Bend, see the exposure-zones guide.