Montclair, CA
Montclair, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Montclair at the 65th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 9,991 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Montclair's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 69th percentile nationally.
Montclair's building exposure, zone by zone
99.2% of Montclair's 9,991 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 0.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 9,991 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Montclair against the rest of the country
Montclair's 65th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 23rd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Montclair ranks 10,990 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,614 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,207 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Montclair and the insurance market
Because Montclair 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 99.2% of Montclair outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Montclair's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Montclair's 10,990-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Montclair's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.