Tehachapi, CA
Tehachapi wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Tehachapi lands at the 99th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 3,973 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Tehachapi at the 99th percentile, close to its 99th-percentile risk score.
Where Tehachapi's buildings actually sit
3,973 buildings are counted in Tehachapi, and 62.4% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 15.4% in Direct exposure or the 22.2% rated Minimal.
Tehachapi against the rest of the country
Tehachapi's risk sits at a similar level relative to California (89th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (99th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tehachapi ranks 346 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,272 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 175 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Tehachapi
Tehachapi's 99th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Tehachapi's 62.4% 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
Tehachapi's 99th-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 Tehachapi, see the exposure-zones guide.