Poplar-Cotton Center, CA
Poplar-Cotton Center, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Poplar-Cotton Center sits at the 78th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 800 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Poplar-Cotton Center at the 79th percentile, close to its 78th-percentile risk score.
Where Poplar-Cotton Center's buildings actually sit
Only 26.8% of Poplar-Cotton Center's 800 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 73.3% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Poplar-Cotton Center against the rest of the country
Poplar-Cotton Center ranks lower within California (38th percentile statewide) than its 78th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Poplar-Cotton Center ranks 6,892 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,629 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 979 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Poplar-Cotton Center and the insurance market
Poplar-Cotton Center's 78th-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.
Hardening a home in Poplar-Cotton Center
With 73.3% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Poplar-Cotton Center 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
Poplar-Cotton Center's 78th-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 Poplar-Cotton Center, see the exposure-zones guide.