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La Paz County, Arizona

Wildfire risk in La Paz County: where it is highest, and why

Wildfire risk in La Paz County spans a moderate-to-high range across the places we scored. Countywide, scores run from 29.7 to 65.0, with a middle value of 42.8.

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La Paz County — the largest fires on record, at their perimeter centres, with the county’s main communities. Select a marker for its detail.
At a glance

Half of La Paz County scores Moderate or worse

We scored 163 points across La Paz County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 12% of them come out High, while 88% are Moderate. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

High 12% · 19 of 163 points Moderate 88% · 144 of 163 points
Safest end we measured 29.7 near Wenden · Moderate
Middle of the county 42.8 Moderate — half of La Paz County is above this
Most exposed end we measured 65 near Bouse · High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively Low FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 70.2 / 100
$94k / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Low
0.05% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 0.11%
2.4 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 99% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates La Paz County: all-hazards risk Relatively Moderate · social vulnerability Very High · community resilience Very Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0007.

Sources: FEMA National Risk Index 1.20.0 (Dec 2025), county record · USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0, mean of the grid cells inside the county. Both describe the county as a whole, never an address in it.

What does your La Paz County address score?

A county range shows the spread. Your parcel sits somewhere inside it — the report says where, and what to do about it.

Free to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan

Local context

What the data says about La Paz County

Since 1984, 7,932 acres have burned within county fire perimeters, and that equals 0.3% of the county. The record also shows 26 fire perimeters since 1984.

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates La Paz County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Low and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively Low. In the same FEMA index, the county’s all-hazards risk is Relatively Moderate.

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

The county record identifies Island (2026) as both the largest fire and the most recent large fire, at 3,145 acres.

Other named fires in and around La Paz County include Lost Lake (2022) and Island Lake (2013), both listed as partly in the county.

Additional named fires include Planet Ranch (2021), Clip (2021), Sourdough (2024), and Broadway (2025).

26 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
7,932 acres inside those perimeters since 1984
0.3% of the county's area, as a share of 11,638.8 km²
Island 2026 most recent large fire on record
Named fires on record
  • Island Fire20263,145 acres
  • Island Lake Fire20132,109 acres in totalcrossed into the county
  • Planet Ranch Fire20211,259 acres
  • Lost Lake Fire20225,857 acres in totalcrossed into the county
  • Broadway Fire2025841 acres
  • Mohave Fire2018924 acres
  • Sourdough Fire2024716 acres
  • Clip Fire20211,068 acres in totalcrossed into the county

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Island 2026. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.

Communities

Where in the county you are matters most

Among listed communities, Bluewater has one of the higher typical wildfire risk scores at 62.3, while Cienega Springs is lower at 35.0 and Quartzsite is 37.9.

Ehrenberg (48.2) and Salome (47.8) are on the higher side of the listed towns and villages, while Parker is lower at 41.0.

Parker Strip is 45.0, Brenda is 42.2, and Wenden is 43.6, showing that nearby communities can still differ by several points.

Bluewater village · 682 people
62.3 High
Ehrenberg village · 763 people
48.2 Moderate
Salome village · 1,162 people
47.8 Moderate
Parker Strip village · 621 people
45 Moderate
Wenden village · 458 people
43.6 Moderate
Brenda village · 466 people
42.2 Moderate
Cibola village · 198 people
42.1 Moderate
Vicksburg village · 418 people
41.9 Moderate
Parker town · 3,200 people
41 Moderate
Quartzsite town · 2,413 people
37.9 Moderate
3 more communities in La Paz County
La Paz Valley village · 368 people
36.1 Moderate
Bouse village · 707 people
35.5 Moderate
Cienega Springs village · 1,690 people
35 Moderate

The score is the median of the sampled points nearest that community — a community-scale indicator, not a score for any individual property in it. Population comes from the community's own record where the source carries one.

Terrain & fuels

Terrain, vegetation and fuels

Terrain-related wildfire risk ranges from 20.0 near Cibola to 65.0 near Brenda, with a county middle of 40.0.

Vegetation and fuels are high in many scored places: the middle value is 80.0, with 80.0 in unincorporated La Paz County and 20.0 at Parker.

Hazard-zone scores run from 10.0 near Cibola to 46.9 near Wenden, with a middle value of 20.3.

Fire weather was not measured for this county in the places we scored. What is measured here also includes fire history, which is 95.0 near Parker and 5.0 in unincorporated La Paz County.

40 median terrain score (max 65 near Brenda)
80 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near unincorporated La Paz County)
Fire weather

Fire weather across La Paz County

Fire weather was not measured at the sampled points in La Paz County. The other four indicators on this page were, and the bars below show what they found.

What drives it

Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't

Risk is not uniform from one part of the county to another. The lowest scored location is in Wenden at 29.7, while the highest is in Bouse at 65.0; the county middle is 42.8.

Most scored locations fall in the Moderate tier: 144 points are Moderate and 19 are High. No scored points fall in the Very High or Low tiers.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across La Paz County, on the same 0–100 scale. A long bar is a part of the risk that depends on where you are; a short one is the same almost everywhere.

Terrain
20–65 highest near Brenda
Vegetation & fuels
20–80 highest near unincorporated La Paz County
Hazard zone
10–46.9 highest near Wenden
Fire history
5–95 highest near Parker
Overall score
29.7–65 highest near Bouse

The tick on each bar is the middle value. Tier boundaries — Moderate at 25, High at 50, Very High at 75 — are the faint lines behind them.

Show every number behind these bars
Layer Min Median Max Lowest place Highest place Points
Terrain 20 40 65 near Cibola near Brenda 162
Vegetation & fuels 20 80 80 Parker unincorporated La Paz County 163
Hazard zone 10 20.3 46.9 near Cibola near Wenden 163
Fire history 5 5 95 unincorporated La Paz County near Parker 163
Composite 29.7 42.8 65 Wenden Bouse 163

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.05% (90th percentile cell: 0.11%), with a mean conditional flame length of 2.4 ft. 99% of the 25,184 grid cells inside the county carry burnable fuel at all.

Source: USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0 (ImageServer, county extent).

CAL FIRE has no mapped Fire Hazard Severity Zone at 163 of the 163 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At 118 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 45 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.

163 sample points on a ~2.3 km grid, plus one at the centre of each community, weighted with the Satelife county profile v1 · median layer coverage 90%. Scores are 0–100 and comparable within the county, not across states.

For a property

What a county range means for one address

For countywide burn likelihood context, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities product lists mean annual burn probability as 0.05 and the 90th-percentile cell as 0.11. It also indicates that 98.5% of the county can burn.

That same USFS product lists mean conditional flame length at 2.4 feet. Use this as county context, alongside the local score at the exact property location.

FEMA’s National Risk Index also gives county context beyond wildfire behavior: social vulnerability is rated Very High and community resilience is rated Very Low for La Paz County.

Across 163 sampled points in La Paz County, the score runs from 29.7 to 65 — two neighbouring parcels can sit in different tiers. A county number is the middle of that spread; it says nothing about which end yours is at.

Find out where your La Paz County parcel sits

Slope, the fuel touching the structure, the road out, the fire history within a mile — measured at your address, not averaged across the county.

Free to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan

Coverage

ZIP codes we cover in La Paz County

Every one of the 17 ZIP areas that touch La Paz County — we run address-level reports in all of them. They are grouped by the median score of the points we sampled inside each, which is a neighbourhood-scale indicator and not a score for any property: two homes in the same ZIP routinely land in different tiers.

Grouped from 7 of 17 ZIP areas — the rest had no sample point fall inside them. The community shown is the nearest mapped place to the ZIP's centre.

ZIP areas are Census 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas intersecting the county boundary.

Where to go next

La Paz County wildfire risk in context

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about La Paz County wildfire risk

Is most of La Paz County in the highest wildfire tier?

No. Most scored locations are in the Moderate tier (144 points), with 19 in High and none in Very High.

How much of the county has burned since 1984?

7,932 acres have burned since 1984, which is 0.3% of La Paz County.

What is the latest large fire in this county record?

Island (2026) is the most recent large fire in the county record, and it is also listed as the largest, at 3,145 acres.

Did you measure fire weather across La Paz County?

No. Fire weather was not measured for this county in the places we scored. The page does include other wildfire risk factors such as terrain, vegetation and fuels, hazard zone, and fire history.

What does FEMA say about county wildfire risk?

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates La Paz County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Low, and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively Low.

This page is generated from a La Paz County data pack assembled on 2026-09-05 (pack v1.0). Scores are sampled across the county, not measured at any individual address, and are informational decision support — not a substitute for official evacuation orders, a fire-agency hazard determination, or an insurer's underwriting judgement. Data versions: fema_nri 1.20.0 (Dec 2025) · landfire per adapter · nifc_history All Years View · wfigs current · wrc v2.0 (2024) · zcta Census 2020.

What does your parcel look like, layer by layer?

A county range shows the spread. An address-level Satelife report shows where in that spread your property actually sits — PDF, per-layer score, and a prioritized mitigation plan.

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