McCloud, CA
McCloud, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, McCloud lands at the 95th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 1,058 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts McCloud at the 94th percentile, close to its 95th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
1,058 buildings are counted in McCloud, and 81.6% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 18.4% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where McCloud ranks
Inside California, McCloud sits at just the 74th percentile even though it scores 95th 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, McCloud ranks 1,534 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,536 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 405 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
McCloud and the insurance market
Because McCloud is in California, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. The state's FAIR Plan alone carried 668,609 policies by the end of 2025. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Hardening a home in McCloud
Because 81.6% of McCloud'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 McCloud's figures come from
McCloud's 95th-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 McCloud's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.