Wildfire Exposure of Homes in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado Counties
In El Dorado County, 64.6% of the county’s 100,466 buildings are directly exposed to wildfire, and its homes face greater wildfire risk, on average, than homes in 99% of US counties, according to the USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Risk to Communities data released in April 2026.
Key numbers
What the data shows
The USDA Forest Service sorts every building in the country into one of three wildfire exposure zones, based on the land around it. A building is directly exposed when it sits in or next to flammable wildland vegetation, where a wildfire can reach it through flame contact and radiant heat as well as embers. It is indirectly exposed when it is within 1,500 meters (about 1 mile) of a large area of wildland vegetation but surrounded by land that does not carry fire well, such as a built-up neighborhood; the threat there is mainly embers and fire spreading from house to house. Buildings farther away have minimal exposure.
By that measure El Dorado County is the most exposed of the three counties: 64.6% of its buildings are directly exposed and another 25.4% indirectly, which leaves only 10.0% with minimal exposure. Placer County is split almost evenly across the three zones (36.1%, 33.7% and 30.2%). Sacramento County is mostly minimal exposure (71.3%), yet its 52,356 directly exposed buildings are not far short of El Dorado County’s 64,951, because the county is so much larger.
The Forest Service also ranks the average wildfire risk to homes in every county. Homes in El Dorado County have greater risk than homes in 99% of US counties, Placer County 98% and Sacramento County 77%.
Three counties, with California and the United States for comparison.
- Directly exposed
- Indirectly exposed
- Minimal exposure
Source: USDA Forest Service, Wildfire Risk to Communities, data file dated 15 April 2026. United States = all 50 states and DC, weighted by buildings.
Buildings by wildfire exposure zone, by county
| Place | Buildings | Direct | Indirect | Minimal | Risk to homes vs US counties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Dorado County | 100,466 | 64.6% (64,951) | 25.4% | 10.0% | 99% |
| Placer County | 176,004 | 36.1% (63,534) | 33.7% | 30.2% | 98% |
| Sacramento County | 515,783 | 10.2% (52,356) | 18.6% | 71.3% | 77% |
| California | 12,687,368 | 17.7% (2,240,249) | 25.1% | 57.2% | — |
| United States | 146,425,939 | 41.5% | 18.5% | 39.9% | — |
Direct, Indirect and Minimal are the shares of buildings in each exposure zone (directly exposed count in brackets). Risk to homes is the share of US counties whose homes have lower average wildfire risk.
Community by community
Exposure varies more between neighboring towns than between counties. In six of the 32 communities in the table, more than half of all buildings are directly exposed: Meadow Vista, Wilton, Penryn, Shingle Springs, Newcastle and Rio Linda. Meadow Vista is the highest at 99.2%; Foothill Farms is the lowest at 0.6%. Some large suburbs have few directly exposed buildings but a large indirectly exposed share, where embers rather than flames are the main concern: Lincoln (8.1% directly, 82.3% indirectly exposed), Rancho Cordova (3.7% directly, 81.8% indirectly exposed) and Rocklin (9.4% directly, 61.0% indirectly exposed).
On risk to homes, 12 of the 32 communities rank at or above the 90th percentile of US communities. Colfax ranks highest, with greater average risk than 99% of US communities.
The 32 communities we serve in the three counties, most directly exposed first
| Community | County | Buildings | Direct | Indirect | Minimal | Risk to homes vs US communities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meadow Vista | Placer | 1,532 | 99.2% | 0.8% | 0.1% | 96% |
| Wilton | Sacramento | 4,804 | 97.7% | 2.3% | 0.0% | 90% |
| Penryn | Placer | 655 | 83.8% | 10.8% | 5.3% | 91% |
| Shingle Springs | El Dorado | 2,601 | 82.4% | 14.6% | 3.0% | 97% |
| Newcastle | Placer | 900 | 56.3% | 38.2% | 5.4% | 92% |
| Rio Linda | Sacramento | 8,061 | 53.1% | 16.9% | 30.0% | 77% |
| Granite Bay | Placer | 10,034 | 48.1% | 12.2% | 39.7% | 88% |
| Loomis | Placer | 3,615 | 47.9% | 2.4% | 49.7% | 83% |
| El Dorado Hills | El Dorado | 18,637 | 35.6% | 33.7% | 30.7% | 97% |
| Walnut Grove | Sacramento | 936 | 34.5% | 35.1% | 30.3% | 64% |
| Placerville | El Dorado | 4,374 | 33.3% | 65.5% | 1.2% | 98% |
| Colfax | Placer | 857 | 28.9% | 71.1% | 0.0% | 99% |
| Cameron Park | El Dorado | 6,671 | 27.9% | 45.9% | 26.2% | 97% |
| North Auburn | Placer | 5,525 | 26.5% | 29.5% | 44.0% | 95% |
| South Lake Tahoe | El Dorado | 10,708 | 22.5% | 56.1% | 21.3% | 94% |
| Auburn | Placer | 5,901 | 18.3% | 70.6% | 11.0% | 94% |
| Orangevale | Sacramento | 14,826 | 17.8% | 0.0% | 82.2% | 67% |
| Fair Oaks | Sacramento | 12,804 | 15.1% | 16.9% | 68.0% | 70% |
| Rocklin | Placer | 22,697 | 9.4% | 61.0% | 29.6% | 80% |
| Folsom | Sacramento | 25,603 | 9.1% | 11.2% | 79.7% | 81% |
| Elk Grove | Sacramento | 54,936 | 8.9% | 48.8% | 42.3% | 82% |
| Lincoln | Placer | 19,906 | 8.1% | 82.3% | 9.6% | 88% |
| Carmichael | Sacramento | 25,832 | 6.9% | 23.6% | 69.6% | 53% |
| Galt | Sacramento | 8,492 | 6.6% | 40.0% | 53.4% | 76% |
| Isleton | Sacramento | 447 | 4.7% | 95.3% | 0.0% | 65% |
| North Highlands | Sacramento | 14,198 | 4.3% | 0.0% | 95.7% | 62% |
| Citrus Heights | Sacramento | 28,511 | 4.0% | 0.0% | 96.0% | 53% |
| Rancho Cordova | Sacramento | 23,292 | 3.7% | 81.8% | 14.5% | 87% |
| Roseville | Placer | 49,960 | 3.6% | 28.4% | 68.0% | 85% |
| Antelope | Sacramento | 13,569 | 3.6% | 40.2% | 56.2% | 80% |
| Sacramento | Sacramento | 165,514 | 3.0% | 10.1% | 86.9% | 71% |
| Foothill Farms | Sacramento | 9,495 | 0.6% | 0.0% | 99.4% | 46% |
Direct, Indirect and Minimal are the shares of each community’s buildings in each exposure zone. Risk to homes is the share of US communities whose homes have lower average wildfire risk. Communities are Census places (cities, towns and census-designated places) where we have a service-area page. Every Census place in the three counties is in the CSV download below.
What this means if you are choosing siding or windows
- These zones are not the state’s fire hazard maps. The Forest Service zones describe the land around buildings. The maps your building department works from are California’s Fire Hazard Severity Zones, published by the State Fire Marshal. Look up your address in the State Fire Marshal’s hazard zone viewer and ask your building department what it requires before you choose materials. Our guide to California’s 2026 wildfire building rules explains how they apply to re-siding and window replacement.
- Directly exposed homes face flames and radiant heat, not only embers. For these homes the siding material matters. Fiber cement such as James Hardie is noncombustible when tested to ASTM E136; vinyl is combustible. No siding makes a house fireproof: embers also get in through vents, gaps and open eaves, so the whole exterior counts.
- Indirect exposure is mostly about embers. The Forest Service’s advice for these areas is ignition-resistant construction and a 5-foot noncombustible area around the house. Windows are part of that: for new buildings in hazard areas, California’s wildland-urban interface code calls for multi-pane windows with at least one tempered pane, or one of a few fire-rated alternatives.
- A low county figure does not mean low risk for your street. Sacramento County as a whole is 10.2% directly exposed, but Wilton and Rio Linda in the same county are mostly directly exposed. Check the community table and the hazard map for your own address.
Method
We downloaded the Forest Service’s Wildfire Risk to Communities tabular file (wrc_download_20260415.xlsx, dated 15 April 2026) and took its county rows for El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties, its state rows, and every Census place in the three counties. Each row gives the number of buildings and the share in each exposure zone; we multiplied them to get building counts. The risk to homes percentile compares a county’s average risk with every other US county (and a community’s with every other US community); we show it rounded to a whole percent, as wildfirerisk.org does. The United States row is our sum of the 50 states and DC, weighted by buildings. The communities in the tables are the 32 Census places in the three counties where we have a service-area page.
Independent check: on 12 November 2026 we fetched every county and community figure shown on this page again from the data service behind wildfirerisk.org’s explore pages, a different route from the download file. All 207 values matched.
Sources
- USDA Forest Service, Wildfire Risk to Communities, tabular data download (file wrc_download_20260415.xlsx, dated 15 April 2026; accessed 12 November 2026). Exposure zone definitions and methods: wildfirerisk.org methods.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 place-by-county reference file for California, to assign each community to its county.
Limits
- Risk to homes is a relative, modeled measure for the area, not a prediction for any one house, and it does not account for work owners have done to harden their homes.
- The data are not current to the month. Per the Forest Service, vegetation reflects 2020 conditions updated for disturbances such as fires through 2022, building locations date from 2022, and the risk model was last updated in 2024; the April 2026 release updated Census boundaries.
- “Buildings” counts every structure in the building data, not only homes.
- Community figures cover Census places only. Communities we serve that are not Census places, such as Cool, Rescue, Pilot Hill, Christian Valley, Gold Hill and Sloughhouse, are included in their county totals but have no row of their own.
- None of this is a Fire Hazard Severity Zone designation, an insurance rating or a building code requirement.
Cite this study
Suggested citation:
Heritage Exteriors. (2026). Wildfire Exposure of Homes in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado Counties. https://hexteriors.com/research/wildfire-exposure-homes-sacramento-region/ Data: USDA Forest Service, Wildfire Risk to Communities (April 2026 release).The table behind this study is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: please credit Heritage Exteriors and link to this page.
Download the data (CSV)County, state and US rows plus all 70 Census places in the three counties with enough data.
Related guides
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