Summerland, CA
Summerland wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Summerland at the 78th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 730 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Summerland's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 74th percentile nationally.
Where Summerland's buildings actually sit
Most of Summerland's buildings (69.2% of 730) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Summerland against the rest of the country
Summerland's 78th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 38th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 41 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Summerland ranks 6,928 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,329 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 981 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Summerland and the insurance market
Summerland 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 78th-percentile score like Summerland's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 69.2% of Summerland outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Summerland's 78th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Summerland, see the exposure-zones guide.