South San Jose Hills, CA
South San Jose Hills, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, South San Jose Hills lands at the 61st percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 4,473 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, South San Jose Hills's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 63rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 0.4% of South San Jose Hills's 4,473 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 99.6% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How South San Jose Hills compares
South San Jose Hills's 61st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 19th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South San Jose Hills ranks 12,409 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,815 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,275 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
South San Jose Hills 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 61st-percentile score like South San Jose Hills's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
South San Jose Hills's 99.6% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where South San Jose Hills's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind South San Jose Hills's 12,409-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what South San Jose Hills's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.