Charter Oak, CA
Charter Oak wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Charter Oak lands at the 67th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 2,597 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Charter Oak at the 66th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Charter Oak's buildings actually sit
Charter Oak rates 99.9% Minimal exposure against just 0.1% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 2,597 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Charter Oak compares
Charter Oak's 67th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 25th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 43 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Charter Oak ranks 10,263 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,107 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,182 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
Charter Oak's 67th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 99.9% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Charter Oak gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where Charter Oak's figures come from
Charter Oak's 67th-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 Charter Oak's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.