Waterloo, CA
How exposed is Waterloo to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Waterloo at the 86th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 451 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Waterloo at the 88th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Waterloo's buildings actually sit
99.3% of Waterloo's 451 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 448 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0.7% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Waterloo compares
Waterloo's 86th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 53rd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 33 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waterloo ranks 4,339 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,250 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 743 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Waterloo and the insurance market
Waterloo's 86th-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
With 99.3% of Waterloo in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Waterloo's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Waterloo's 4,339-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Waterloo's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.