Cayucos, CA
How exposed is Cayucos to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Cayucos at the 94th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 2,413 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Cayucos at the 96th percentile, close to its 94th-percentile risk score.
Cayucos's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Cayucos (96.4% of 2,413 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 3.6% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Cayucos ranks
Cayucos ranks lower within California (72nd percentile statewide) than its 94th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cayucos ranks 1,818 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,484 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 444 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cayucos
Because Cayucos is in California, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. The state's FAIR Plan alone carried 668,609 policies by the end of 2025. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
What would actually reduce this score
Cayucos's 96.4% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Cayucos's figures come from
Cayucos's 94th-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 Cayucos's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.