Hanford, CA
Hanford, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Hanford sits at the 65th 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 19,862 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hanford's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Where Hanford's buildings actually sit
Only 5.3% of Hanford's 19,862 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 94.7% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 19,862 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Hanford ranks
Hanford's 65th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 23rd 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, Hanford ranks 10,989 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 711 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,206 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Hanford and the insurance market
Because Hanford 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.
Hardening a home in Hanford
Hanford's 94.7% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Hanford's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Hanford's 10,989-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hanford's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.