Wasco, CA
How exposed is Wasco to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Wasco lands at the 84th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 6,412 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 Wasco at the 85th percentile, close to its 84th-percentile risk score.
Wasco's building exposure, zone by zone
91.3% of Wasco's 6,412 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 7.8% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 6,412 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Wasco against the rest of the country
Wasco ranks lower within California (47th percentile statewide) than its 84th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wasco ranks 5,097 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,704 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 837 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Wasco
Because Wasco 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
Even with 91.3% of Wasco 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.
More on how this number was built
Wasco's 84th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Wasco, see the exposure-zones guide.