Garberville, CA
How exposed is Garberville to wildfire?
USFS scores Garberville at the 73rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 563 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Garberville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 73rd percentile nationally.
Where Garberville's buildings actually sit
50.3% of Garberville's 563 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 283 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 49.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Garberville ranks
Inside California, Garberville sits at just the 31st percentile even though it scores 73rd 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, Garberville ranks 8,437 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,350 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,084 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Garberville
Garberville's 73rd-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 50.3% of Garberville in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Garberville's 8,437-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Garberville, see the exposure-zones guide.