Seaside, CA
Seaside, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Seaside sits at the 80th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 9,980 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Seaside at the 78th national percentile — 1 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
9,980 buildings are counted in Seaside, and 64.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 4.4% in Direct exposure or the 31.4% rated Minimal. At 9,980 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Seaside against the rest of the country
Seaside ranks lower within California (40th percentile statewide) than its 80th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Seaside ranks 6,394 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,619 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 942 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Seaside and the insurance market
Seaside 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 80th-percentile score like Seaside's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Seaside
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Seaside (64.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Seaside's 80th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Seaside, see the exposure-zones guide.