Rail Road Flat, CA
Rail Road Flat, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Rail Road Flat's 908 buildings earn a 99th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Rail Road Flat's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 99th percentile nationally.
Rail Road Flat's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Rail Road Flat: 100% of its 908 buildings, versus 0% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Rail Road Flat compares
Rail Road Flat's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (90th 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, Rail Road Flat ranks 279 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,654 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 154 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Rail Road Flat and the insurance market
Rail Road Flat 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 99th-percentile score like Rail Road Flat's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 100% of Rail Road Flat in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 908 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Rail Road Flat. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Rail Road Flat, see the exposure-zones guide.