Occidental, CA
Occidental, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Occidental's 971 buildings earn a 77th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Occidental at the 79th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 95.6% of Occidental's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 4.4% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 928 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Occidental compares
Occidental ranks lower within California (36th percentile statewide) than its 77th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Occidental ranks 7,208 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,140 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,003 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
Occidental's 77th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 95.6% of Occidental in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Occidental's 7,208-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Occidental, see the exposure-zones guide.