Lee Vining, CA
How exposed is Lee Vining to wildfire?
USFS scores Lee Vining at the 96th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 216 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Lee Vining at the 94th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 71.3% of Lee Vining's 216 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 28.7% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Lee Vining against the rest of the country
Lee Vining ranks lower within California (75th percentile statewide) than its 96th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lee Vining ranks 1,377 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,264 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 390 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Lee Vining and the insurance market
Lee Vining 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 96th-percentile score like Lee Vining's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Lee Vining's 71.3% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 216 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Lee Vining. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Lee Vining, see the exposure-zones guide.