Westside, CA
How exposed is Westside to wildfire?
Westside sits at the 61st 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 70 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Westside at the 62nd 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
Of Westside's 70 counted buildings, 60% carry Direct exposure and only 40% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Westside compares
Inside California, Westside sits at just the 19th percentile even though it scores 61st nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Westside ranks 12,376 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,268 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,272 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Westside and the insurance market
Westside sits in California, one of two states that legally require a wildfire-risk disclosure at sale. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, ended 2025 with 668,609 residential policies after adding 21,859 in Q4 alone — the kind of market shift a 61st-percentile score like Westside's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Westside
With 60% of Westside 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 Westside's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Westside's 12,376-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Westside's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.