Mill Valley, CA
Mill Valley, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Mill Valley at the 79th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 5,676 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mill Valley's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 79th percentile nationally.
Where Mill Valley's buildings actually sit
Most of Mill Valley's buildings (71%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 5,676 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Mill Valley against the rest of the country
Mill Valley's 79th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 38th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 41 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mill Valley ranks 6,705 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,045 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 971 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
Mill Valley 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 79th-percentile score like Mill Valley's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Mill Valley
Mill Valley's 71% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Mill Valley's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Mill Valley's 6,705-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Mill Valley's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.