Portola, CA
How exposed is Portola to wildfire?
Portola sits at the 99th 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 1,255 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Portola at the 98th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Portola's buildings actually sit
Most of Portola's buildings (88.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where Portola ranks
Portola scores 99th nationally and 89th 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, Portola ranks 374 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,322 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 185 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Portola
Portola'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.
Hardening a home in Portola
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Portola (88.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Portola's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Portola's 374-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Portola's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.