Ocotillo, CA
Ocotillo, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ocotillo lands at the 3rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 364 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Ocotillo at the 3rd national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Ocotillo's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 97% of Ocotillo's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 3% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where Ocotillo ranks
Ocotillo scores 3rd nationally and 0th 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, Ocotillo ranks 30,594 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 19,976 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,569 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
Because Ocotillo 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
With 97% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Ocotillo gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Ocotillo's 3rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Ocotillo, see the exposure-zones guide.