Elk Grove, CA
Elk Grove, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Elk Grove sits at the 82nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 54,936 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Elk Grove at the 83rd national percentile — 1 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
48.9% of Elk Grove's 54,936 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 8.9% Direct and 42.3% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 54,936 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Elk Grove against the rest of the country
Elk Grove's 82nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 43rd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 39 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elk Grove ranks 5,823 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 153 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 899 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Because Elk Grove 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.
Hardening a home in Elk Grove
Because 48.9% of Elk Grove'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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 54,936 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Elk Grove. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Elk Grove, see the exposure-zones guide.