San Jose, AZ
San Jose wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, San Jose lands at the 83rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 293 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, San Jose's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 83rd percentile nationally.
Where San Jose's buildings actually sit
293 buildings are counted in San Jose, and 67.9% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 32.1% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
San Jose against the rest of the country
San Jose's 83rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 50th ranking inside Arizona does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 33 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, San Jose ranks 5,283 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,807 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 221 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
San Jose and the insurance market
San Jose's 83rd-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in San Jose (67.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where San Jose's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind San Jose's 5,283-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what San Jose's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.