Salida, CA
How exposed is Salida to wildfire?
Salida's 4,653 buildings earn a 78th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Salida at the 77th percentile, close to its 78th-percentile risk score.
Salida's building exposure, zone by zone
76.6% of Salida's 4,653 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 0.5% Direct and 22.9% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Salida against the rest of the country
Inside California, Salida sits at just the 37th percentile even though it scores 78th 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, Salida ranks 7,020 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,654 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 990 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Salida and the insurance market
Salida's 78th-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 Salida
Because 76.6% of Salida's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Salida's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Salida's 7,020-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Salida's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.