Ross, CA
Ross wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Ross lands at the 74th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 1,171 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Ross at the 75th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Ross's 1,171 counted buildings, 68.7% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Ross ranks
Inside California, Ross sits at just the 32nd percentile even though it scores 74th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ross ranks 8,059 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,818 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,066 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ross
Because Ross is in California, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. The state's FAIR Plan alone carried 668,609 policies by the end of 2025. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Ross (68.7%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Ross's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Ross's 8,059-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Ross's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.