Buckhorn, CA
Buckhorn wildfire risk explained
Buckhorn sits at the 100th 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 1,900 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Buckhorn at the 99th percentile, close to its 100th-percentile risk score.
Buckhorn's building exposure, zone by zone
99.4% of Buckhorn's 1,900 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,888 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Buckhorn compares
Buckhorn's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (95th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (100th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Buckhorn ranks 117 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,760 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 74 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Buckhorn
Buckhorn's 100th-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
Hardening a home in Buckhorn
Buckhorn's 99.4% 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.
More on how this number was built
Buckhorn's 100th-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 Buckhorn, see the exposure-zones guide.