Woodlake, CA
How exposed is Woodlake to wildfire?
Woodlake sits at the 86th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 2,228 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Woodlake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 88th percentile nationally.
Woodlake's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 82.1% of Woodlake's 2,228 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 17.5% Direct and 0.5% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Woodlake compares
Woodlake'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, Woodlake ranks 4,312 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,865 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 739 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Woodlake
Woodlake 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 86th-percentile score like Woodlake's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Woodlake (82.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Woodlake's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Woodlake's 4,312-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Woodlake's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.