Lakehead, CA
Lakehead wildfire risk explained
Lakehead sits at the 100th 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 492 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 Lakehead at the 100th percentile, close to its 100th-percentile risk score.
Where Lakehead's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 67.9% of Lakehead's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 28.9% Indirect share and far above its 3.3% Minimal share — a profile where 334 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Lakehead against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Lakehead's 100th national percentile and its 95th percentile inside California, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lakehead ranks 124 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,491 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 81 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Lakehead
Lakehead 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 100th-percentile score like Lakehead's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Lakehead
Because Direct exposure dominates in Lakehead (67.9%), 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
Lakehead's 100th-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 Lakehead, see the exposure-zones guide.