{
  "title": "Wildfire Risk in Del Norte County, CA 2026 | Satelife",
  "description": "Wildfire risk in Del Norte County varies a lot from place to place. Across the places we scored, the middle value is 61.0, with scores running from 15.7 in Smith River up to 80.9 near Klamath.",
  "image": "https://satelife.ai/images/wildfire-risk/del-norte-county/generated/del-norte-county-locator.webp",
  "canonical": "https://satelife.ai/wildfire-risk/california/del-norte-county/",
  "content": "[Home](/)›[Wildfire Risk](/wildfire-risk/)›[California](/wildfire-risk/california/)›Del Norte County\n\nDel Norte County, California\n\n# Wildfire risk in Del Norte County: _where it is highest_, and why\n\nWildfire risk in Del Norte County varies a lot from place to place. Across the places we scored, the middle value is 61.0, with scores running from 15.7 in Smith River up to 80.9 near Klamath.\n\n[Score my Del Norte County address →](#score-my-address) [How risky is this county? ↓](#risk-at-a-glance)\n\nBefore 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity\n\nDel Norte County — the largest fires on record, at their perimeter centres, with the county’s main communities. Select a marker for its detail.\n\nAt a glance\n\n## Half of Del Norte County scores _High_ or worse\n\nWe scored 155 points across Del Norte 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 Very High, while 14% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.\n\n12%\n\n60%\n\n15%\n\n14%\n\n**Very High** 12% · 18 of 155 points **High** 60% · 93 of 155 points **Moderate** 15% · 23 of 155 points **Low** 14% · 21 of 155 points\n\nSafest end we measured 15.7 near Smith River · Low\n\nMiddle of the county 61 High — half of Del Norte County is above this\n\nMost exposed end we measured 80.9 near Klamath · Very High\n\n### And the federal models agree it is a fire county\n\nRelatively Low FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 85.7 / 100\n\n$650k / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Low\n\n1.15% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.40%\n\n8.71 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 84% of the county carries burnable fuel\n\nFEMA NRI also rates Del Norte County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively Moderate · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0015.\n\nSources: 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.\n\nWhat does your Del Norte County address score?\n\nA county range shows the spread. Your parcel sits somewhere inside it — the report says where, and what to do about it.\n\nFree to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan\n\nLocal context\n\n## What the data says about _Del Norte County_\n\nMost scored locations fall in the High tier, with 93 points in that tier. There are also places in Very High, Moderate, and Low tiers, so risk is not uniform across the county.\n\nFor county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Del Norte County’s wildfire risk as “Relatively Low,” while its all-hazards risk rating is “Relatively High.”\n\nFire record\n\n## Where the fires _actually were_\n\nSince 1984, 171,302 acres have burned in Del Norte County, and that is 21.9% of the county. The county has had 60 fire perimeters in that period.\n\nThe largest fire listed here is Oak (2017), at 91,125 acres, and it was not partly in Del Norte County. The most recent large fire is Holiday (2023).\n\nOther major fires that were partly in Del Norte County include Biscuit (2002) and Slater (2020).\n\n![Biscuit Fire (2002) in Del Norte County, California - Continuing hot, dry weather is challenging firefighters in the West. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) im](/images/wildfire-risk/del-norte-county/photos/fires-scorch-oregon-9902.webp)\n\n**Biscuit Fire, 2002** — Del Norte County. Photo: Image by Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA-GSFC · [Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fires_Scorch_Oregon_\\(9902\\).jpg)\n\n60 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984\n\n171,302 acres inside those perimeters since 1984\n\n21.9% of the county's area, as a share of 3,162 km²\n\nHoliday 2023 most recent large fire on record\n\nBefore 20002000s2010s2020s \n\nFire perimeters coloured by decade. Select a perimeter for its name, year and size.\n\nNamed fires on record\n\n-   **Oak Fire**201791,125 acres\n-   **Kelly Fire**202389,326 acres in totalcrossed into the county\n-   **Biscuit Fire**2002501,082 acres in totalcrossed into the county\n-   **Slater Fire**2020157,430 acres in totalcrossed into the county\n-   **Mosquito Fire**202334,188 acres\n-   **Mill Fire**200865,882 acres in totalcrossed into the county\n-   **Eclipse Complex Fire**201790,864 acres in totalcrossed into the county\n-   **Blue 2 Fire**200817,552 acres\n\nPerimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Oak 2017. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.\n\nCommunities\n\n## Where in the county you are _matters most_\n\nAmong named communities, Crescent City has the lowest middle wildfire risk score at 21.6, while Gasquet is much higher at 66.8. That gap shows how different risk can be within one county.\n\nHiouchi (51.3) and Klamath (50.7) are both around the middle of the community scores shown here, while Smith River is lower at 38.7.\n\nThe largest named community here is Crescent City, with a population of 7,860, and Smith River is listed at 866. Community size and wildfire risk score are separate measures, so both are worth checking for a specific home search.\n\nGasquet village\n\n66.8 _High_\n\nHiouchi village\n\n51.3 _High_\n\nKlamath village\n\n50.7 _High_\n\nSmith River village · 866 people\n\n38.7 _Moderate_\n\nCrescent City town · 7,860 people\n\n21.6 _Low_\n\nThe 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.\n\nTerrain & fuels\n\n## Terrain, vegetation and _fuels_\n\nTerrain scores are lower near Smith River and higher near Klamath. The terrain middle value is 40.0, with values from 5.0 in Smith River to 65.0 near Klamath.\n\nVegetation and fuels are generally elevated in the county’s scored locations. The middle value is 70.0, with a low of 5.0 in Klamath and a high of 80.0 near Gasquet.\n\nTaken together, steeper terrain and heavier fuels are associated with higher wildfire risk in parts of the county, especially away from the lowest-scoring coastal locations.\n\n40 median terrain score (max 65 near Klamath)\n\n70 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Gasquet)\n\nFire weather\n\n## Fire weather across _Del Norte County_\n\nFire-weather scores are fairly elevated across the scored locations, with less spread than some other factors. The middle value is 57.9, ranging from 51.2 near Klamath to 65.5 near Crescent City.\n\nSeparately from fire weather, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities model shows a mean annual burn probability of 1.15% and a 90th-percentile cell value of 2.40%. It also indicates that 83.7% of the county can burn.\n\n51.2 lowest fire-weather score — near Klamath\n\n65.5 highest fire-weather score — near Crescent City\n\nWhat drives it\n\n## Which part of the risk _moves_, and which doesn't\n\nRisk changes sharply across short distances in Del Norte County. The highest overall score we saw was 80.9 near Klamath, while the lowest was 15.7 in Smith River.\n\nSome of the strongest differences show up in location-based risk factors. Hazard-zone scores reached 94.1 near Klamath, and fire-history scores reached 95.0 near Klamath, which is associated with higher overall risk in that area.\n\nEach bar is what one part of the score covers across Del Norte 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.\n\nTerrain\n\n5–65 highest near Klamath\n\nVegetation & fuels\n\n5–80 highest near Gasquet\n\nHazard zone\n\n10–94.1 highest near Klamath\n\nFire history\n\n5–95 highest near Klamath\n\nFire weather\n\n51.2–65.5 highest near Crescent City\n\nOverall score\n\n15.7–80.9 highest near Klamath\n\nThe 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.\n\nShow every number behind these bars\n\nLayer\n\nMin\n\nMedian\n\nMax\n\nLowest place\n\nHighest place\n\nPoints\n\nTerrain\n\n5\n\n40\n\n65\n\nSmith River\n\nnear Klamath\n\n155\n\nVegetation & fuels\n\n5\n\n70\n\n80\n\nKlamath\n\nnear Gasquet\n\n155\n\nHazard zone\n\n10\n\n71.5\n\n94.1\n\nKlamath\n\nnear Klamath\n\n155\n\nFire history\n\n5\n\n40\n\n95\n\nKlamath\n\nnear Klamath\n\n155\n\nFire weather\n\n51.2\n\n57.9\n\n65.5\n\nnear Klamath\n\nnear Crescent City\n\n155\n\nComposite\n\n15.7\n\n61\n\n80.9\n\nSmith River\n\nnear Klamath\n\n155\n\nIndependently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at **1.15%** (90th percentile cell: **2.40%**), with a mean conditional flame length of **8.71 ft**. **84%** of the 24,094 grid cells inside the county carry burnable fuel at all.\n\nSource: USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0 (ImageServer, county extent).\n\nCAL FIRE has no mapped Fire Hazard Severity Zone at **109** of the 155 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At **88** of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 21 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.\n\n155 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.\n\nFor a property\n\n## What a county range means for _one address_\n\nFor home decisions, the county pattern is mixed but leans higher: the High tier has the most scored points (93), and there are also Very High locations (18). That means two nearby properties can sit in different risk tiers.\n\nLocal conditions matter. Hazard-zone values range from 10.0 in Klamath to 94.1 near Klamath, which shows large shifts over short distances.\n\nThe USFS model’s mean conditional flame length is 8.71 feet. Along with local tier and location-specific factors, that helps describe how wildfire risk can differ from one property area to another.\n\nAcross 155 sampled points in Del Norte County, the score runs from 15.7 to 80.9 — 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.\n\nFind out where your Del Norte County parcel sits\n\nSlope, the fuel touching the structure, the road out, the fire history within a mile — measured at your address, not averaged across the county.\n\nFree to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan\n\nCoverage\n\n## ZIP codes we cover in Del Norte County\n\nEvery one of the 10 ZIP areas that touch Del Norte 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.\n\n**High** 4 ZIPs\n\n-   [95543 Gasquet65](/wildfire-risk/zip/95543/)\n-   [95567 Smith River58](/wildfire-risk/zip/95567/)\n-   [95548 Klamath53](/wildfire-risk/zip/95548/)\n-   [95531 Hiouchi51](/wildfire-risk/zip/95531/)\n\n**Moderate** 1 ZIP\n\n-   [95538 Smith River39](/wildfire-risk/zip/95538/)\n\n**No sampled point inside** 5 ZIPs\n\n[95555 Klamath](/wildfire-risk/zip/95555/) · [95556](/wildfire-risk/zip/95556/) · [97415 Smith River](/wildfire-risk/zip/97415/) · [97523](/wildfire-risk/zip/97523/) · [97534 Gasquet](/wildfire-risk/zip/97534/)\n\nGrouped from 5 of 10 ZIP areas — the rest had no sample point fall inside them. The community shown is the nearest mapped place to the ZIP's centre.\n\nZIP areas are Census 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas intersecting the county boundary.\n\nWhere to go next\n\n## Del Norte County wildfire risk _in context_\n\n[California wildfire risk The statewide picture and every county page we publish](/wildfire-risk/california/) [Wildfire risk by state Every state and county we cover](/wildfire-risk/) [How Satelife calculates wildfire risk Data sources, layers, score composition, honest limits](/wildfire-risk/methodology/) [Create a wildfire evacuation plan Zones, egress routes, refuge areas](/wildfire-evacuation-plan/) [Run a report for a Del Norte County address PDF + score + mitigation plan](/#cta)\n\nFAQ\n\n## Frequently asked questions about _Del Norte County wildfire risk_\n\nHow much of Del Norte County has burned in recent decades?\n\nSince 1984, 171,302 acres have burned, which is 21.9% of the county.\n\nWhat is the latest large fire mentioned for Del Norte County?\n\nThe most recent large fire is Holiday (2023). The largest fire listed here is Oak (2017) at 91,125 acres, and it was not partly in Del Norte County.\n\nDoes most of the county fall into a high wildfire-risk tier?\n\nYes. The High tier has the most scored locations, with 93 points. Other locations are in Very High, Moderate, and Low tiers.\n\nIs FEMA saying Del Norte County has high wildfire risk?\n\nFEMA’s National Risk Index rates the county’s wildfire risk as “Relatively Low.” In the same index, FEMA rates the county’s all-hazards risk as “Relatively High.”\n\nAre fire weather and burn probability the same thing?\n\nNo. Fire weather is scored separately here. The USFS burn-probability figures are modelled burn-probability outputs, reported here as 1.15% mean annual burn probability and 2.40% at the 90th-percentile cell.\n\nThis page is generated from a Del Norte County data pack assembled on 2026-08-19 (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.\n\n## What does _your parcel_ look like, layer by layer?\n\nA 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.\n\n[Start with your address →](/#cta)\n\n[![PRR](/images/prr.png)](/ficha-de-website-voucher-satelife.pdf)\n\n© 2024–2026 Satelife, Lda. All rights reserved.\n\nSatelife reports are for informational purposes only and do not constitute insurance, financial, or legal advice."
}