Clearlake, CA
Clearlake wildfire risk explained
Clearlake sits at the 99th 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 9,135 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Clearlake at the 99th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 77.4% of Clearlake's 9,135 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 17.6% Direct and 5.1% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 9,135 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Clearlake ranks
Clearlake's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (92nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (99th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Clearlake ranks 210 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,810 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 118 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Clearlake and the insurance market
Because Clearlake 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.
Hardening a home in Clearlake
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Clearlake (77.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 9,135 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Clearlake. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Clearlake, see the exposure-zones guide.