McKinleyville, CA
How exposed is McKinleyville to wildfire?
McKinleyville sits at the 49th 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 7,554 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks McKinleyville at the 53rd national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where McKinleyville's buildings actually sit
65.4% of McKinleyville's 7,554 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 33.4% Direct and 1.2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 7,554 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
McKinleyville against the rest of the country
Inside California, McKinleyville sits at just the 10th percentile even though it scores 49th 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, McKinleyville ranks 16,034 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,266 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,416 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
McKinleyville 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 49th-percentile score like McKinleyville's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in McKinleyville (65.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 7,554 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for McKinleyville. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond McKinleyville, see the exposure-zones guide.