Soledad, CA
Soledad, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Soledad's 4,400 buildings earn a 92nd-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.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Soledad at the 89th percentile, close to its 92nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
82.9% of Soledad's 4,400 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 6.8% Direct and 10.4% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Soledad against the rest of the country
Inside California, Soledad sits at just the 66th percentile even though it scores 92nd 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, Soledad ranks 2,516 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,883 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 529 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Soledad
Because Soledad 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 Soledad
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Soledad (82.9% 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
Soledad's 92nd-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 Soledad, see the exposure-zones guide.