Wildfire risk in Yavapai County: where it is highest, and why
Wildfire risk in Yavapai County spans a wide range across the places we scored. The countywide middle score is 52.8, with values running from 33.3 in Ash Fork up to 80.3 in unincorporated Yavapai County.
Yavapai 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 Yavapai County scores High or worse
We scored 175 points across Yavapai County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 3% of them come out Very High, while 43% are Moderate. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
54%
43%
Very High3% · 5 of 175 pointsHigh54% · 94 of 175 pointsModerate43% · 76 of 175 points
Safest end we measured33.3near Ash Fork · Moderate
Middle of the county52.8High — half of Yavapai County is above this
Most exposed end we measured80.3near unincorporated Yavapai County · Very High
And the federal models agree it is a fire county
Relatively HighFEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 99.6 / 100
$28.7M / yrFEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively High
0.36%USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 0.74%
7.35 ftUSFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 100% of the county carries burnable fuel
FEMA NRI also rates Yavapai County: all-hazards risk Relatively Moderate · social vulnerability Relatively High · community resilience Very Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0054.
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 Yavapai 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 Yavapai County
Most scored locations fall in the High tier: 94 points. Moderate follows at 76 points, and Very High appears at 5 points.
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Yavapai County’s wildfire risk as Relatively High, and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively High. In the same FEMA index, all-hazards risk is Relatively Moderate.
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
Since 1984, 785,546 acres have burned in Yavapai County, across 365 fire perimeters. That equals 15.2% of the county area.
The largest fire listed here is the Cave Creek Complex (2005) at 250,243 acres. The most recent large fire is Campwood (2026).
Other major fires in this record include Willow (2004) at 119,952 acres. Backbone (2021) burned 40,858 acres and was partly in Yavapai County.
Willow Fire, 2004 — Yavapai County.
Photo: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team · Public domainPilot Fire, 2023 — Yavapai County.
Photo: US Federal Government · Public domain
365mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
785,546acres inside those perimeters since 1984
15.2%of the county's area, as a share of 20,951.4 km²
Campwood 2026most recent large fire on record
Before 20002000s2010s2020s
Fire perimeters coloured by decade. Select a perimeter for its name, year and size.
Named fires on record
Cave Creek Complex Fire2005250,243 acres
Willow Fire2004119,952 acres
Pilot Fire202334,778 acres
Brooklyn Fire201733,569 acres
Backbone Fire202140,858 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Skeleton Fire202424,034 acres
Goodwin Fire201728,529 acres
Sheridan Fire201921,482 acres
Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Cave Creek Complex 2005.
Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.
Communities
Where in the county you are matters most
Among larger communities, Prescott is higher at 55.0, while Prescott Valley is 42.0 and Cottonwood is 41.2.
Several smaller communities score higher, including Black Canyon City at 68.1 and Cordes Lakes at 66.1. Dewey-Humboldt is also elevated at 60.4.
At the lower end of listed communities, Ash Fork is 33.3, Camp Verde / ʼMatthi:wa / Gambúdih is 36.2, and Chino Valley is 38.1.
Black Canyon Citytown · 2,677 people
68.1 High
Spring Valleyvillage · 1,143 people
66.4 High
Cordes Lakesvillage · 2,684 people
66.1 High
Mayervillage
66.1 High
Wilhoitvillage · 864 people
62 High
Dewey-Humboldtvillage · 4,063 people
60.4 High
Jeromevillage · 350 people
59.9 High
Yarnellvillage · 570 people
58.3 High
Clarkdalevillage · 3,836 people
55.5 High
Peeples Valleyvillage · 499 people
55.2 High
15 more communities in Yavapai County
Prescottcity · 45,827 people
55 High
Congressvillage · 1,811 people
51.8 High
Camp Verdetown
50.5 High
Lake Montezumavillage · 5,111 people
49.3 Moderate
Bagdadvillage · 1,932 people
48.8 Moderate
Verde Villagevillage · 12,019 people
48.3 Moderate
Cornvillevillage · 3,362 people
46.5 Moderate
Pauldenvillage · 5,567 people
46 Moderate
Williamsonvillage · 6,196 people
44.1 Moderate
Prescott Valleytown · 42,197 people
42 Moderate
Cottonwoodtown · 12,029 people
41.2 Moderate
Seligmanvillage · 446 people
39.6 Moderate
Chino Valleytown · 13,020 people
38.1 Moderate
Camp Verde / ʼMatthi:wa / Gambúdihvillage
36.2 Moderate
Ash Forkvillage · 361 people
33.3 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 scores are elevated and fairly tight across the places we scored: 55.0 at the low end and 65.0 at the high end. The top terrain value appears near Black Canyon City.
Vegetation and fuels show a much wider spread. Scores run from 20.0 in Prescott to 80.0 near Black Canyon City, with a middle value of 74.0.
65median terrain score (max 65 near Black Canyon City)
74median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Black Canyon City)
Fire weather
Fire weather across Yavapai County
Fire weather was not measured at the sampled points in Yavapai 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
Across the county, wildfire-risk scores are not uniform. The lowest scored place is Ash Fork at 33.3, while the highest is unincorporated Yavapai County at 80.3.
Hazard-zone scores also vary sharply by place, from 10.0 near Black Canyon City to 86.2 in unincorporated Yavapai County. The middle value is 45.2.
Fire-history scores range from 5.0 near Black Canyon City to 95.0 in unincorporated Yavapai County, with a middle value of 30.0.
Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Yavapai 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
55–65highest near Black Canyon City
Vegetation & fuels
20–80highest near Black Canyon City
Hazard zone
10–86.2highest near unincorporated Yavapai County
Fire history
5–95highest near unincorporated Yavapai County
Overall score
33.3–80.3highest near unincorporated Yavapai County
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
55
65
65
unincorporated Yavapai County
near Black Canyon City
175
Vegetation & fuels
20
74
80
Prescott
near Black Canyon City
175
Hazard zone
10
45.2
86.2
near Black Canyon City
unincorporated Yavapai County
175
Fire history
5
30
95
near Black Canyon City
unincorporated Yavapai County
175
Composite
33.3
52.8
80.3
Ash Fork
unincorporated Yavapai County
175
Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.36% (90th percentile cell: 0.74%), with a mean conditional flame length of 7.35 ft. 100% of the 26,833 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 175 of the 175 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At 170 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 5 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.
175 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
Fire weather was not measured for Yavapai County in these scores.
What is available countywide includes a modeled burn-probability view from the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities product. Its mean annual burn probability is listed as 0.36%, and 99.6% of the county is in areas that can burn.
In that same USFS product, the higher-end burn-probability cell value is 0.74%, and mean conditional flame length is 7.35 feet. FEMA’s National Risk Index also rates county social vulnerability as Relatively High and community resilience as Very Low.
Across 175 sampled points in Yavapai County, the score runs from
33.3 to 80.3 — 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 Yavapai 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 Yavapai County
Every one of the 42 ZIP areas that touch Yavapai 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.
Frequently asked questions about Yavapai County wildfire risk
Is wildfire risk the same everywhere in Yavapai County?
No. Scores range from 33.3 in Ash Fork to 80.3 in unincorporated Yavapai County, so exposure differs by location.
Which fire was the largest, and what is the most recent large fire?
The largest listed fire is Cave Creek Complex (2005), at 250,243 acres. The most recent large fire is Campwood (2026).
How much of the county has burned since 1984?
A total of 785,546 acres has burned since 1984, which is 15.2% of Yavapai County.
What do FEMA’s county ratings say?
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Yavapai County wildfire risk as Relatively High, wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively High, all-hazards risk as Relatively Moderate, social vulnerability as Relatively High, and community resilience as Very Low.
Do you include fire weather on this page?
No. Fire weather was not measured for Yavapai County here. The page does include a USFS modeled burn-probability view, with a mean annual burn probability of 0.36%.
This page is generated from a Yavapai 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.
