Meridian, CA
Meridian wildfire risk explained
Meridian sits at the 74th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 296 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Meridian at the 70th national percentile — 4 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 66.2% of Meridian's 296 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 27.7% Direct and 6.1% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Meridian against the rest of the country
Inside California, Meridian sits at just the 32nd percentile even though it scores 74th 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, Meridian ranks 8,216 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,725 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,073 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Meridian and the insurance market
Because Meridian 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 Meridian
Because 66.2% of Meridian'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 Meridian's figures come from
Meridian's 74th-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 Meridian's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.