El Portal, CA
El Portal wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts El Portal at the 98th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 249 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, El Portal's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 97th percentile nationally.
El Portal's building exposure, zone by zone
249 buildings are counted in El Portal, and 73.5% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How El Portal compares
El Portal's 98th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 83rd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 15 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, El Portal ranks 653 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,159 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 266 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in El Portal
Because El Portal 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
With 73.5% of El Portal in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where El Portal's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 249 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for El Portal. The exposure-zones guide covers what El Portal's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.