Desert Edge, CA
Desert Edge wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Desert Edge at the 68th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 3,257 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Desert Edge at the 68th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Desert Edge's buildings actually sit
3,257 buildings are counted in Desert Edge, and 98.3% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 1.4% in Direct exposure or the 0.4% rated Minimal.
Desert Edge against the rest of the country
Desert Edge ranks lower within California (26th percentile statewide) than its 68th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Desert Edge ranks 9,982 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,092 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,166 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Desert Edge
Because Desert Edge 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Desert Edge's 98.3% 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Desert Edge's 9,982-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Desert Edge, see the exposure-zones guide.