Lakewood, CA
Lakewood wildfire risk explained
Lakewood's 32,307 buildings earn a 36th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Lakewood's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 42nd percentile nationally.
Lakewood's building exposure, zone by zone
99.8% of Lakewood's 32,307 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 0.2% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 32,307 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Lakewood against the rest of the country
Lakewood's 36th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 4th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 32 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lakewood ranks 20,159 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 340 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,504 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
Lakewood 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 36th-percentile score like Lakewood's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Lakewood's 99.8% 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 Lakewood's figures come from
Lakewood's 36th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lakewood's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.