Kirkwood, CA
Kirkwood wildfire risk explained
Kirkwood sits at the 86th 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 324 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Kirkwood at the 83rd national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Kirkwood's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Kirkwood: 92% of its 324 buildings, versus 5.6% Indirect and 2.5% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Kirkwood ranks
Kirkwood's 86th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 51st ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kirkwood ranks 4,529 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,978 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 762 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Kirkwood and the insurance market
Because Kirkwood 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 Kirkwood
Kirkwood's 92% 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 Kirkwood's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Kirkwood's 4,529-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kirkwood's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.