Camp Pendleton South, CA
Camp Pendleton South, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Camp Pendleton South at the 87th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 2,253 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Camp Pendleton South at the 91st percentile, close to its 87th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Camp Pendleton South (65.6% of 2,253 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 8.6% sit in the Direct zone.
Camp Pendleton South against the rest of the country
Inside California, Camp Pendleton South sits at just the 56th percentile even though it scores 87th 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, Camp Pendleton South ranks 3,991 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,809 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 699 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
Camp Pendleton South 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 Camp Pendleton South's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 65.6% of Camp Pendleton South's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Camp Pendleton South's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,253 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Camp Pendleton South. The exposure-zones guide covers what Camp Pendleton South's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.