Shafter, CA
How exposed is Shafter to wildfire?
Shafter's 7,022 buildings earn a 83rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Shafter's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 84th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 17.5% of Shafter's 7,022 buildings carry Direct exposure and 14.5% carry Indirect; the remaining 68% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure. At 7,022 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Shafter compares
Shafter ranks lower within California (44th percentile statewide) than its 83rd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shafter ranks 5,510 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,445 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 877 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Shafter's 83rd-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 68% of Shafter outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Shafter's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Shafter's 5,510-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Shafter's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.