San Marcos, CA
San Marcos, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, San Marcos lands at the 84th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 24,628 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks San Marcos at the 83rd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
San Marcos's building exposure, zone by zone
73.5% of San Marcos's 24,628 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 8.4% Direct and 18.1% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 24,628 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where San Marcos ranks
San Marcos ranks lower within California (47th percentile statewide) than its 84th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, San Marcos ranks 5,096 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 520 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 836 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
San Marcos and the insurance market
San Marcos 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 84th-percentile score like San Marcos's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
San Marcos's 73.5% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 24,628 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for San Marcos. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond San Marcos, see the exposure-zones guide.