Sutter, CA
How exposed is Sutter to wildfire?
Sutter's 1,507 buildings earn a 78th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Sutter at the 78th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Sutter's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Sutter's buildings (89.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Sutter against the rest of the country
Sutter'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 40 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sutter ranks 6,929 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,134 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 982 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
Sutter 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 Sutter's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Sutter
Sutter's 89.6% 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.
More on how this number was built
Sutter'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 indirect exposure implies beyond Sutter, see the exposure-zones guide.