Mount Shasta, CA
How exposed is Mount Shasta to wildfire?
Mount Shasta's 1,915 buildings earn a 93rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mount Shasta's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 91st percentile nationally.
Where Mount Shasta's buildings actually sit
Most of Mount Shasta's buildings (76.6%) 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.
Mount Shasta against the rest of the country
Mount Shasta's 93rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 68th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 25 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mount Shasta ranks 2,323 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,721 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 509 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
Mount Shasta's 93rd-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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Mount Shasta (76.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Mount Shasta's 93rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Mount Shasta, see the exposure-zones guide.