Tipton, CA
Tipton, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Tipton sits at the 63rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 823 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Tipton at the 64th percentile, close to its 63rd-percentile risk score.
Where Tipton's buildings actually sit
Tipton rates 86.9% Minimal exposure against just 13.1% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 823 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Tipton ranks
Tipton's 63rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 22nd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tipton ranks 11,559 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,413 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,233 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
Tipton's 63rd-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
Even with 86.9% of Tipton outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Tipton's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 823 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Tipton. The exposure-zones guide covers what Tipton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.