Brookdale, CA
Brookdale, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Brookdale at the 72nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 812 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Brookdale at the 73rd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Brookdale's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 97.3% of Brookdale's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 2.7% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 790 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Brookdale compares
Brookdale's 72nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 30th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Brookdale ranks 8,938 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,533 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,106 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Brookdale and the insurance market
Brookdale 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 72nd-percentile score like Brookdale's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Brookdale
Brookdale's 97.3% 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 Brookdale's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 812 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Brookdale. The exposure-zones guide covers what Brookdale's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.