Phoenix Lake, CA
How exposed is Phoenix Lake to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Phoenix Lake lands at the 99th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 2,790 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 Phoenix Lake at the 98th percentile, close to its 99th-percentile risk score.
Where Phoenix Lake's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Phoenix Lake: 94.7% of its 2,790 buildings, versus 5.1% Indirect and 0.3% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Phoenix Lake compares
Phoenix Lake's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (87th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (99th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Phoenix Lake ranks 438 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,781 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 208 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Phoenix Lake
Phoenix Lake's 99th-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 Direct exposure dominates in Phoenix Lake (94.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,790 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Phoenix Lake. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Phoenix Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.