Montara, CA
How exposed is Montara to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Montara at the 84th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,297 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Montara's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Montara's buildings (67.5%) 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.
Where Montara ranks
Inside California, Montara sits at just the 46th percentile even though it scores 84th 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, Montara ranks 5,194 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,090 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 847 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Montara and the insurance market
Because Montara 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Montara's 67.5% 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 Montara's figures come from
Montara's 84th-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 Montara's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.