Mariposa, CA
Mariposa wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Mariposa at the 98th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 1,181 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Mariposa at the 98th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Mariposa's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 56.7% of Mariposa's 1,181 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 43.4% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Mariposa compares
Mariposa's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (85th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (98th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mariposa ranks 532 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,757 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 233 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
Mariposa's 98th-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Mariposa (56.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Mariposa's figures come from
Mariposa's 98th-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 Mariposa's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.