Monte Rio, CA
How exposed is Monte Rio to wildfire?
USFS scores Monte Rio at the 73rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 826 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Monte Rio's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 72nd percentile nationally.
Where Monte Rio's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Monte Rio: 70.6% of its 826 buildings, versus 29.4% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Monte Rio ranks
Inside California, Monte Rio sits at just the 31st percentile even though it scores 73rd 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, Monte Rio ranks 8,438 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,386 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,085 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
Because Monte Rio 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
Monte Rio's 70.6% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Monte Rio's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Monte Rio's 8,438-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Monte Rio's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.