Blackhawk, CA
Blackhawk wildfire risk explained
Blackhawk 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 3,748 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Blackhawk at the 97th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Blackhawk's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Blackhawk: 52.1% of its 3,748 buildings, versus 47.9% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Blackhawk compares
Blackhawk's 97th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 80th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 18 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Blackhawk ranks 904 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,475 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 317 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Blackhawk and the insurance market
Blackhawk 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 97th-percentile score like Blackhawk's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Blackhawk's 52.1% 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.
Where Blackhawk's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Blackhawk's 904-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Blackhawk's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.