WildfireRiskFinder

Crescent City, CA

Crescent City wildfire risk explained

Elevated
48thpercentile nationally

USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Crescent City at the 48th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,714 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)

Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Crescent City at the 50th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.

What "at risk" means for the buildings here

1,714Total buildings
1.6%Direct exposure
84.4%Indirect exposure
14%Minimal exposure

84.4% of Crescent City's 1,714 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 1.6% Direct and 14% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.

Crescent City against the rest of the country

Crescent City ranks lower within California (9th percentile statewide) than its 48th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Crescent City ranks 16,411 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,371 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,424 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.

Shopping for coverage in Crescent City

Crescent City 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 48th-percentile score like Crescent City's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.

What would actually reduce this score

Because 84.4% of Crescent City's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.

More on how this number was built

Crescent City's 48th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Crescent City, see the exposure-zones guide.