New Cuyama, CA
How exposed is New Cuyama to wildfire?
New Cuyama sits at the 80th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 326 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, New Cuyama's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of New Cuyama's buildings (61.4%) 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.
How New Cuyama compares
New Cuyama's 80th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 40th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 39 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, New Cuyama ranks 6,391 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,913 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 939 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
New Cuyama and the insurance market
Because New Cuyama 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in New Cuyama (61.4% 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
New Cuyama's 80th-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 New Cuyama, see the exposure-zones guide.