Thermalito, CA
Thermalito, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Thermalito at the 88th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 3,261 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Thermalito at the 89th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Direct exposure dominates in Thermalito: 61.1% of its 3,261 buildings, versus 19.7% Indirect and 19.3% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Thermalito ranks
Thermalito's 88th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 56th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 32 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Thermalito ranks 3,929 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,087 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 695 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Thermalito
Thermalito's 88th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Thermalito's 61.1% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,261 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Thermalito. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Thermalito, see the exposure-zones guide.