Knightsen, CA
Knightsen, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Knightsen lands at the 81st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 1,609 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Knightsen at the 82nd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Knightsen: 81.3% of its 1,609 buildings, versus 11.9% Indirect and 6.8% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Knightsen ranks
Inside California, Knightsen sits at just the 42nd percentile even though it scores 81st 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, Knightsen ranks 5,886 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,733 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 907 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Because Knightsen 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Knightsen's 81.3% 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 Knightsen's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,609 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Knightsen. The exposure-zones guide covers what Knightsen's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.