Tahoma, CA
Tahoma wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Tahoma at the 86th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,818 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Tahoma's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 82nd percentile nationally.
Where Tahoma's buildings actually sit
Of Tahoma's 1,818 counted buildings, 73.1% carry Direct exposure and only 1.2% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Tahoma against the rest of the country
Tahoma's 86th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 52nd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tahoma ranks 4,464 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,011 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 757 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Tahoma
Because Tahoma 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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Tahoma (73.1%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Tahoma's figures come from
Tahoma's 86th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Tahoma's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.