Gold Mountain, CA
Gold Mountain, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Gold Mountain at the 99th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 126 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Gold Mountain's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 98th percentile nationally.
Where Gold Mountain's buildings actually sit
Of Gold Mountain's 126 counted buildings, 100% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Gold Mountain against the rest of the country
Gold Mountain's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (87th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (99th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gold Mountain ranks 404 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,880 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 194 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Gold Mountain and the insurance market
Gold Mountain's 99th-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
Gold Mountain's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 126 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Gold Mountain. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gold Mountain, see the exposure-zones guide.