Taft, CA
Taft, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Taft at the 69th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,079 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Taft's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 70th percentile nationally.
Where Taft's buildings actually sit
Most of Taft's buildings (51.2%) 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.
How Taft compares
Taft ranks lower within California (27th percentile statewide) than its 69th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Taft ranks 9,732 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,314 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,154 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Taft
Because Taft is in California, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. The state's FAIR Plan alone carried 668,609 policies by the end of 2025. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Taft's 51.2% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Taft's 9,732-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Taft, see the exposure-zones guide.