Newell, CA
How exposed is Newell to wildfire?
USFS scores Newell at the 62nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 338 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Newell's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 64th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Newell's buildings (85.8% of 338) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Newell against the rest of the country
Newell's 62nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 20th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Newell ranks 11,904 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,616 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,256 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Newell and the insurance market
Because Newell 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
Even with 85.8% of Newell 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Newell's 11,904-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Newell, see the exposure-zones guide.