Hemet, CA
Hemet wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Hemet at the 92nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 30,913 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Hemet's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 93rd percentile nationally.
Hemet's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Hemet's buildings (56.4% of 30,913) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 30,913 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Hemet compares
Inside California, Hemet sits at just the 66th percentile even though it scores 92nd 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, Hemet ranks 2,572 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 365 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 535 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Hemet and the insurance market
Hemet 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 92nd-percentile score like Hemet's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Hemet's 56.4% 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 Hemet's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 30,913 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hemet. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hemet's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.