Bodega Bay, CA
Bodega Bay wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Bodega Bay lands at the 87th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 1,343 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bodega Bay at the 90th percentile, close to its 87th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Bodega Bay's buildings (52.5%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Bodega Bay ranks
Bodega Bay's 87th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 55th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 32 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bodega Bay ranks 4,117 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,858 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 711 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
Bodega Bay 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 87th-percentile score like Bodega Bay's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Bodega Bay (52.5% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Bodega Bay's figures come from
Bodega Bay's 87th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Bodega Bay's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.