Colma, CA
Colma, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Colma's 720 buildings earn a 62nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Colma at the 61st percentile, close to its 62nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
720 buildings are counted in Colma, and 83.6% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 6.9% in Direct exposure or the 9.4% rated Minimal.
Where Colma ranks
Colma's 62nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 20th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Colma ranks 11,901 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,447 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,253 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Colma and the insurance market
Colma 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 62nd-percentile score like Colma's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
Colma's 83.6% 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 Colma's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Colma's 11,901-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Colma's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.