Coachella, CA
How exposed is Coachella to wildfire?
Coachella's 9,595 buildings earn a 53rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Coachella at the 56th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Coachella's building exposure, zone by zone
92.8% of Coachella's 9,595 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 7.2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 9,595 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Coachella ranks
Coachella's 53rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 13th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 40 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Coachella ranks 14,709 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,696 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,368 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
Coachella 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 53rd-percentile score like Coachella's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Coachella
Even with 92.8% of Coachella outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Coachella's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 9,595 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Coachella. The exposure-zones guide covers what Coachella's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.