Freedom, CA
Freedom, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Freedom sits at the 72nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,196 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Freedom at the 74th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Freedom's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 70.8% of Freedom's 1,196 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 21.6% Direct and 7.6% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Freedom compares
Inside California, Freedom sits at just the 30th percentile even though it scores 72nd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Freedom ranks 8,909 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,666 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,105 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 Freedom 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Freedom's 70.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Freedom's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,196 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Freedom. The exposure-zones guide covers what Freedom's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.