Amador County, California

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

Wildfire risk in Amador County spans a wide range across the places we scored. The countywide middle score is 61.9, with scores running from 24.3 in Ione to 79.5 near Volcano.

Score my Amador County address → How risky is this county? ↓

Before 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity

Amador 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 Amador County scores High or worse

We scored 157 points across Amador County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 13% of them come out Very High, while 1% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

13%

73%

14%

Very High 13% · 20 of 157 points High 73% · 114 of 157 points Moderate 14% · 22 of 157 points Low 1% · 1 of 157 points

Safest end we measured 24.3 near Ione · Low

Middle of the county 61.9 High — half of Amador County is above this

Most exposed end we measured 79.5 near Volcano · Very High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively High FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 98.1 / 100

$14.1M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively High

1.08% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.56%

5.86 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 98% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Amador County: all-hazards risk Relatively Low · social vulnerability Relatively Moderate · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0106.

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 Amador 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 Amador County

Most scored locations fall in the High tier: 114 locations are High, compared with 20 in Very High. That means high exposure is common in the county, but it is not uniform.

Since 1984, 37,534 acres have burned in the county, and that is 9.7% of the county. FEMA’s National Risk Index rates countywide wildfire risk as Relatively High.

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

The county fire record includes both older and newer major fires. In the county stats, the largest listed fire is Power (2004) at 16,983 acres. The most recent large fire is Electra (2022), at 4,470 acres.

Some major fires tied to Amador County extended beyond county lines. Caldor (2021) burned 221,784 acres and is marked as partly in the county, and Butte (2015) burned 70,847 acres and is also marked partly in the county.

Fire perimeters have been mapped 94 times in Amador County since 1984. That history is part of why wildfire risk varies so much from one part of the county to another.

Caldor Fire (2021) in Amador County, California - The Caldor Fire burned more than 220,000 acres in El Dorado, Amador, and Alpine counties in California in 2021. It destroyed more — **Caldor Fire, 2021** — Amador County. Photo: National Interagency Fire Center · Public domain

Butte Fire (2015) in Amador County, California - The original finding aid described this as: Date Taken: 2015-10-07 01:24:20 UTC Photographer name: Adam DuBrowa City/State: McClel — **Butte Fire, 2015** — Amador County. Photo: Department of Homeland Security. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Public Affairs Division. 3/1/2003 · Public domain

94 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984

37,534 acres inside those perimeters since 1984

9.7% of the county's area, as a share of 1,558.4 km²

Electra 2022 most recent large fire on record

Named fires on record

Rancheria Fire196134,104 acres
Power Fire200416,983 acres
Caldor Fire2021221,784 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Butte Fire201570,847 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Electra Fire20224,470 acres
Pi Pi-Indian Digging Fire19248,948 acres
Quarry Fire197620,870 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Van Vleck Fire19682,665 acres

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Power 2004. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.

Communities

Where in the county you are matters most

Community-level patterns are mixed rather than one-size-fits-all. Ione’s middle score is 57.0, while Jackson’s is 62.6.

Plymouth (61.9), Amador City (61.8), and Willow Springs (61.2) sit in a fairly tight band, while Sutter Creek is lower at 49.5 and Volcano is higher at 66.3.

FEMA’s National Risk Index county ratings are countywide, not neighborhood-by-neighborhood. For Amador County, FEMA rates both wildfire risk and expected annual loss as Relatively High.

Volcano village

66.3 High

Jackson town · 4,405 people

62.6 High

Plymouth village · 1,070 people

61.9 High

Amador City village · 218 people

61.8 High

Willow Springs village

61.2 High

Ione town · 7,649 people

57 High

Sutter Creek village · 2,776 people

49.5 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 contributes differently by location. Terrain scores run from 20.0 near Ione up to 65.0 in Jackson, showing a clear shift in how landform is associated with wildfire risk from one area to another.

Vegetation and fuels vary even more. Scores range from 5.0 near Ione to 80.0 in Volcano, with a county middle value of 67.5.

Hazard-zone scoring is generally elevated in this county, with a middle value of 84.5 and a high of 92.1 near Volcano. That is a separate factor from fire weather, and it adds to local differences in overall wildfire risk.

40 median terrain score (max 65 near Jackson)

67.5 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Volcano)

LANDFIRE existing vegetation type map of Amador County, California, with the county boundary outlined — LANDFIRE existing vegetation type across Amador County — the same fuel data that feeds the vegetation layer of a Satelife property report.

Fire weather

Fire weather across Amador County

Fire weather was measured across the county, and it varies less than terrain or fuels. Scores run from 53.5 near Ione to 63.1 in Willow Springs, with a middle value of 54.4.

A separate national model from the U.S. Forest Service reports a mean annual burn probability of 1.08%, with a 90th-percentile cell value of 2.56%. It also indicates that 97.7% of the county can burn.

53.5 lowest fire-weather score — near Ione

63.1 highest fire-weather score — near Willow Springs

What drives it

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

Risk is not the same across Amador County. The lowest scored location is Ione at 24.3, while the highest scored location is near Volcano at 79.5.

Among named communities, Volcano has a higher middle score (66.3) than Sutter Creek (49.5). Jackson is also on the higher side at 62.6.

Across all scored locations, High is the most common tier, with 114 locations. Very High appears too, with 20 locations, so some areas are meaningfully more exposed than the county middle.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Amador 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 Jackson

Vegetation & fuels

5–80 highest near Volcano

Hazard zone

10–92.1 highest near Volcano

Fire history

5–95 highest near Jackson

Fire weather

53.5–63.1 highest near Willow Springs

Overall score

24.3–79.5 highest near Volcano

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 Ione	Jackson	157
Vegetation & fuels	5	67.5	80	near Ione	Volcano	157
Hazard zone	10	84.5	92.1	Ione	near Volcano	157
Fire history	5	40	95	Ione	Jackson	157
Fire weather	53.5	54.4	63.1	near Ione	Willow Springs	157
Composite	24.3	61.9	79.5	Ione	near Volcano	157

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 1.08% (90th percentile cell: 2.56%), with a mean conditional flame length of 5.86 ft. 98% of the 13,780 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 32 of the 157 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 32 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead.

157 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 100%. Scores are 0–100 and comparable within the county, not across states.

For a property

What a county range means for one address

Property-specific building features were not measured at all in this countywide scoring.

What is measured can still help frame a property conversation: the local overall tier at that location, plus nearby patterns in terrain, fuels, hazard-zone scores, and fire history. For example, fire-history scores range from 5.0 in Ione to 95.0 in Jackson.

Hazard-zone scores are high in many scored locations, with a middle value of 84.5 and a maximum of 92.1 near Volcano. For a specific home, the address-level result is the best way to place that property within the county pattern.

Across 157 sampled points in Amador County, the score runs from 24.3 to 79.5 — 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 Amador 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 Amador County

Every one of the 26 ZIP areas that touch Amador 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.

Very High 1 ZIP

95689 Volcano77

High 10 ZIPs

No sampled point inside 15 ZIPs

95223 · 95226 Ione · 95227 Ione · 95252 Jackson · 95254 Ione · 95255 Volcano · 95623 Plymouth · 95632 Ione · 95638 Ione · 95646 · 95675 Plymouth · 95682 Plymouth · 95684 Volcano · 95726 Volcano · 96155

Grouped from 11 of 26 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

Amador County wildfire risk in context

California wildfire risk The statewide picture and every county page we publish Wildfire risk by state Every state and county we cover How Satelife calculates wildfire risk Data sources, layers, score composition, honest limits Create a wildfire evacuation plan Zones, egress routes, refuge areas Run a report for a Amador County address PDF + score + mitigation plan

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Amador County wildfire risk

Is wildfire risk the same everywhere in Amador County?

No. In the places scored, values run from 24.3 in Ione to 79.5 near Volcano, and most locations fall in the High tier.

How much of Amador County has burned in recent decades?

Since 1984, 37,534 acres have burned, which equals 9.7% of the county.

What are the key recent or major fires to know?

In county stats, the largest listed fire is Power (2004), 16,983 acres. The most recent large fire is Electra (2022), 4,470 acres. Caldor (2021), 221,784 acres, is marked as partly in the county.

Does this page include fire weather information?

Yes. Fire-weather scores were measured across the county, from 53.5 near Ione to 63.1 in Willow Springs.

Does this page measure home construction details like roof type?

No. Property-specific building features were not measured at all in this countywide scoring.