Shandon, CA
Shandon wildfire risk explained
Shandon sits at the 86th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 616 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Shandon at the 89th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Shandon's buildings actually sit
616 buildings are counted in Shandon, and 55% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 45% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Shandon ranks
Shandon's 86th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 52nd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shandon ranks 4,406 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,615 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 751 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shandon and the insurance market
Shandon's 86th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 55% of Shandon'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.
More on how this number was built
Shandon's 86th-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 Shandon, see the exposure-zones guide.