Winchester, CA
Winchester, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Winchester's 1,464 buildings earn a 91st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Winchester's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 93rd percentile nationally.
Winchester's building exposure, zone by zone
70% of Winchester's 1,464 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 1,024 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 30.1% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Winchester compares
Winchester's 91st national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 63rd ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 28 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Winchester ranks 2,922 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,334 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 584 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Winchester and the insurance market
Winchester 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 91st-percentile score like Winchester's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Winchester
Winchester's 70% 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 1,464 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Winchester. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Winchester, see the exposure-zones guide.