Spreckels, CA
Spreckels, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Spreckels sits at the 65th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 455 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Spreckels at the 66th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Spreckels's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 99.8% of Spreckels's 455 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 0.2% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Spreckels against the rest of the country
Spreckels's 65th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 23rd 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, Spreckels ranks 10,992 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,169 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,209 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Spreckels
Spreckels 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 65th-percentile score like Spreckels's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Spreckels's 99.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Spreckels's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Spreckels's 10,992-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Spreckels's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.