Loleta, CA
How exposed is Loleta to wildfire?
Loleta sits at the 59th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 476 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Loleta at the 62nd national percentile — 4 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Loleta's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 65.8% of Loleta's 476 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 34.2% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Loleta against the rest of the country
Inside California, Loleta sits at just the 16th percentile even though it scores 59th 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, Loleta ranks 13,071 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,775 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,311 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Loleta and the insurance market
Loleta 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 59th-percentile score like Loleta's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Loleta
Because 65.8% of Loleta's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Loleta's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 476 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Loleta. The exposure-zones guide covers what Loleta's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.