Morro Bay, CA
Morro Bay, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Morro Bay sits at the 92nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 6,995 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Morro Bay at the 93rd national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Morro Bay's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 95.9% of Morro Bay's 6,995 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 4.1% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to. At 6,995 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Morro Bay ranks
Morro Bay ranks lower within California (67th percentile statewide) than its 92nd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Morro Bay ranks 2,515 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,466 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 528 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Morro Bay and the insurance market
Morro Bay's 92nd-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 95.9% of Morro Bay's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,995 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Morro Bay. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Morro Bay, see the exposure-zones guide.