Oroville, CA
Oroville wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Oroville lands at the 89th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 7,617 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Oroville at the 90th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Oroville's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Oroville (48.1% of 7,617 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 19.5% sit in the Direct zone. At 7,617 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Oroville compares
Oroville ranks lower within California (60th percentile statewide) than its 89th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Oroville ranks 3,365 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,245 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 636 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
Oroville's 89th-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
Because 48.1% of Oroville's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 7,617 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Oroville. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Oroville, see the exposure-zones guide.