Sunol, CA
Sunol wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Sunol at the 96th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,188 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sunol at the 97th percentile, close to its 96th-percentile risk score.
Sunol's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Sunol's 1,188 counted buildings, 80.6% 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.
Sunol against the rest of the country
Sunol ranks lower within California (76th percentile statewide) than its 96th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sunol ranks 1,345 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,715 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 383 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
Sunol's 96th-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
Hardening a home in Sunol
Because Direct exposure dominates in Sunol (80.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Sunol's 96th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Sunol, see the exposure-zones guide.