Monte Sereno, CA
How exposed is Monte Sereno to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Monte Sereno lands at the 76th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,740 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Monte Sereno's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 75th percentile nationally.
Where Monte Sereno's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 41.3% of Monte Sereno's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 38.4% Direct and 20.3% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Monte Sereno against the rest of the country
Monte Sereno's 76th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 35th 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, Monte Sereno ranks 7,524 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,266 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,023 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Monte Sereno and the insurance market
Because Monte Sereno 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 Monte Sereno
Even with 41.3% of Monte Sereno 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.
More on how this number was built
Monte Sereno's 76th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Monte Sereno, see the exposure-zones guide.