Cherokee Strip, CA
How exposed is Cherokee Strip to wildfire?
Cherokee Strip sits at the 86th 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 89 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cherokee Strip at the 88th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Cherokee Strip's buildings actually sit
Of Cherokee Strip's 89 counted buildings, 100% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Cherokee Strip compares
Cherokee Strip's 86th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 52nd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cherokee Strip ranks 4,432 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,523 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 752 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
Because Cherokee Strip 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Cherokee Strip (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Cherokee Strip's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 89 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Cherokee Strip. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cherokee Strip's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.