Rainbow, CA
Rainbow wildfire risk explained
Rainbow sits at the 100th 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 1,485 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Rainbow's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 100th percentile nationally.
Rainbow's building exposure, zone by zone
1,485 buildings are counted in Rainbow, and 79.5% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Rainbow compares
Rainbow scores 100th nationally and 96th 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, Rainbow ranks 103 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,227 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 67 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
Rainbow 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 100th-percentile score like Rainbow's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Rainbow
With 79.5% of Rainbow 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Rainbow's 103-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Rainbow, see the exposure-zones guide.