---
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/"
---

[Home](/)›[Wildfire Risk](/wildfire-risk/)›[California](/wildfire-risk/california/)›Del Norte County

Del Norte County, California

# Wildfire risk in Del Norte County: _where it is highest_, and why

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.

[Score my Del Norte County address →](#score-my-address) [How risky is this county? ↓](#risk-at-a-glance)

Before 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity

Del Norte 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 Del Norte County scores _High_ or worse

We 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.

12%

60%

15%

14%

**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

Safest end we measured 15.7 near Smith River · Low

Middle of the county 61 High — half of Del Norte County is above this

Most exposed end we measured 80.9 near Klamath · Very High

### And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively Low FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 85.7 / 100

$650k / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Low

1.15% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.40%

8.71 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 84% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Del Norte County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively Moderate · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0015.

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 Del Norte 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 _Del Norte County_

Most 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.

For 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.”

Fire record

## Where the fires _actually were_

Since 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.

The 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).

Other major fires that were partly in Del Norte County include Biscuit (2002) and Slater (2020).

![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)

**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)

60 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984

171,302 acres inside those perimeters since 1984

21.9% of the county's area, as a share of 3,162 km²

Holiday 2023 most 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

-   **Oak Fire**201791,125 acres
-   **Kelly Fire**202389,326 acres in totalcrossed into the county
-   **Biscuit Fire**2002501,082 acres in totalcrossed into the county
-   **Slater Fire**2020157,430 acres in totalcrossed into the county
-   **Mosquito Fire**202334,188 acres
-   **Mill Fire**200865,882 acres in totalcrossed into the county
-   **Eclipse Complex Fire**201790,864 acres in totalcrossed into the county
-   **Blue 2 Fire**200817,552 acres

Perimeter 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.

Communities

## Where in the county you are _matters most_

Among 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.

Hiouchi (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.

The 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.

Gasquet village

66.8 _High_

Hiouchi village

51.3 _High_

Klamath village

50.7 _High_

Smith River village · 866 people

38.7 _Moderate_

Crescent City town · 7,860 people

21.6 _Low_

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 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.

Vegetation 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.

Taken 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.

40 median terrain score (max 65 near Klamath)

70 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Gasquet)

Fire weather

## Fire weather across _Del Norte County_

Fire-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.

Separately 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.

51.2 lowest fire-weather score — near Klamath

65.5 highest fire-weather score — near Crescent City

What drives it

## Which part of the risk _moves_, and which doesn't

Risk 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.

Some 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.

Each 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.

Terrain

5–65 highest near Klamath

Vegetation & fuels

5–80 highest near Gasquet

Hazard zone

10–94.1 highest near Klamath

Fire history

5–95 highest near Klamath

Fire weather

51.2–65.5 highest near Crescent City

Overall score

15.7–80.9 highest near Klamath

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

5

40

65

Smith River

near Klamath

155

Vegetation & fuels

5

70

80

Klamath

near Gasquet

155

Hazard zone

10

71.5

94.1

Klamath

near Klamath

155

Fire history

5

40

95

Klamath

near Klamath

155

Fire weather

51.2

57.9

65.5

near Klamath

near Crescent City

155

Composite

15.7

61

80.9

Smith River

near Klamath

155

Independently 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.

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

CAL 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.

155 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_

For 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.

Local conditions matter. Hazard-zone values range from 10.0 in Klamath to 94.1 near Klamath, which shows large shifts over short distances.

The 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.

Across 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.

Find out where your Del Norte 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 Del Norte County

Every 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.

**High** 4 ZIPs

-   [95543 Gasquet65](/wildfire-risk/zip/95543/)
-   [95567 Smith River58](/wildfire-risk/zip/95567/)
-   [95548 Klamath53](/wildfire-risk/zip/95548/)
-   [95531 Hiouchi51](/wildfire-risk/zip/95531/)

**Moderate** 1 ZIP

-   [95538 Smith River39](/wildfire-risk/zip/95538/)

**No sampled point inside** 5 ZIPs

[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/)

Grouped 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.

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

Where to go next

## Del Norte County wildfire risk _in context_

[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)

FAQ

## Frequently asked questions about _Del Norte County wildfire risk_

How much of Del Norte County has burned in recent decades?

Since 1984, 171,302 acres have burned, which is 21.9% of the county.

What is the latest large fire mentioned for Del Norte County?

The 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.

Does most of the county fall into a high wildfire-risk tier?

Yes. The High tier has the most scored locations, with 93 points. Other locations are in Very High, Moderate, and Low tiers.

Is FEMA saying Del Norte County has high wildfire risk?

FEMA’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.”

Are fire weather and burn probability the same thing?

No. 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.

This 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.

## 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.

[Start with your address →](/#cta)

[![PRR](/images/prr.png)](/ficha-de-website-voucher-satelife.pdf)

© 2024–2026 Satelife, Lda. All rights reserved.

Satelife reports are for informational purposes only and do not constitute insurance, financial, or legal advice.
