Ford City, CA
Ford City wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ford City lands at the 73rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,797 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Ford City at the 72nd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Ford City's building exposure, zone by zone
96.3% of Ford City's 1,797 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 1.8% Direct and 2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Ford City against the rest of the country
Ford City's 73rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 31st 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, Ford City ranks 8,595 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,072 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,092 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 Ford City 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
Because 96.3% of Ford City'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.
Where Ford City's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,797 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Ford City. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ford City's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.