Lake Don Pedro, CA
Lake Don Pedro, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Lake Don Pedro sits at the 97th 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 1,474 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Lake Don Pedro at the 97th percentile, close to its 97th-percentile risk score.
Where Lake Don Pedro's buildings actually sit
99.9% of Lake Don Pedro's 1,474 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,473 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0.1% are Minimal.
How Lake Don Pedro compares
Lake Don Pedro ranks lower within California (80th percentile statewide) than its 97th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Don Pedro ranks 874 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,285 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 312 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Lake Don Pedro and the insurance market
Because Lake Don Pedro 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because Direct exposure dominates in Lake Don Pedro (99.9%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Lake Don Pedro's 97th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Lake Don Pedro, see the exposure-zones guide.