El Rancho, CA
How exposed is El Rancho to wildfire?
USFS scores El Rancho at the 88th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 36 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks El Rancho at the 91st national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where El Rancho's buildings actually sit
Of El Rancho's 36 counted buildings, 100% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How El Rancho compares
El Rancho ranks lower within California (56th percentile statewide) than its 88th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, El Rancho ranks 3,867 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,247 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 687 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
El Rancho and the insurance market
El Rancho's 88th-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
El Rancho's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where El Rancho's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind El Rancho's 3,867-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what El Rancho's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.