Shasta, CA
How exposed is Shasta to wildfire?
Shasta sits at the 96th 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 972 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Shasta at the 96th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Shasta's 972 counted buildings, 94.4% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Shasta ranks
Inside California, Shasta sits at just the 77th percentile even though it scores 96th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shasta ranks 1,226 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,128 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 368 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shasta and the insurance market
Because Shasta is in California, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. The state's FAIR Plan alone carried 668,609 policies by the end of 2025. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Hardening a home in Shasta
With 94.4% of Shasta in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Shasta's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Shasta's 1,226-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Shasta's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.