Redwood City, CA
How exposed is Redwood City to wildfire?
Redwood City sits at the 58th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 21,460 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Redwood City at the 58th national percentile — 0 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 97% of Redwood City's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 1.9% Direct and 1.1% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one. At 21,460 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Redwood City ranks
Redwood City ranks lower within California (16th percentile statewide) than its 58th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Redwood City ranks 13,101 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 646 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,313 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Redwood City and the insurance market
Redwood City's 58th-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
Even with 97% of Redwood City outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Redwood City's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 21,460 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Redwood City. The exposure-zones guide covers what Redwood City's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.