North Fork, CA
North Fork wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, North Fork lands at the 98th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 2,730 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts North Fork at the 98th percentile, close to its 98th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 98.8% of North Fork's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 1.2% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 2,697 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
North Fork against the rest of the country
North Fork scores 98th nationally and 86th within California — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, North Fork ranks 497 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,882 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 226 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
North Fork and the insurance market
North Fork sits in California, one of two states that legally require a wildfire-risk disclosure at sale. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, ended 2025 with 668,609 residential policies after adding 21,859 in Q4 alone — the kind of market shift a 98th-percentile score like North Fork's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in North Fork
North Fork's 98.8% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,730 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for North Fork. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond North Fork, see the exposure-zones guide.