Emerald Lake Hills, CA
How exposed is Emerald Lake Hills to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Emerald Lake Hills at the 65th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,963 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Emerald Lake Hills at the 64th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Emerald Lake Hills's buildings actually sit
Most of Emerald Lake Hills's buildings (54.7% of 1,963) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Emerald Lake Hills against the rest of the country
Emerald Lake Hills's 65th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 23rd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Emerald Lake Hills ranks 10,926 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,581 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,203 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Emerald Lake Hills
Emerald Lake Hills's 65th-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
Even with 54.7% of Emerald Lake Hills outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,963 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Emerald Lake Hills. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Emerald Lake Hills, see the exposure-zones guide.