Hamilton Branch, CA
How exposed is Hamilton Branch to wildfire?
Hamilton Branch sits at the 98th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 551 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hamilton Branch's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 96th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Hamilton Branch's 551 counted buildings, 71.9% carry Direct exposure and only 1.1% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Hamilton Branch ranks
Hamilton Branch's 98th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 81st ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 17 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hamilton Branch ranks 777 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,553 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 299 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Hamilton Branch
Hamilton Branch sits in California, one of two states that legally require a wildfire-risk disclosure at sale. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, ended 2025 with 668,609 residential policies after adding 21,859 in Q4 alone — the kind of market shift a 98th-percentile score like Hamilton Branch's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
Hamilton Branch's 71.9% 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.
Where Hamilton Branch's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 551 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hamilton Branch. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hamilton Branch's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.