Onyx, CA
How exposed is Onyx to wildfire?
Onyx sits at the 98th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 434 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Onyx at the 97th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Onyx's 434 counted buildings, 56.5% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Onyx compares
Onyx's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (84th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (98th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Onyx ranks 596 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,557 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 253 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Onyx and the insurance market
Onyx 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 Onyx's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
Onyx's 56.5% 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 434 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Onyx. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Onyx, see the exposure-zones guide.