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San Francisco County, California

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

Across the places we scored in San Francisco County, overall wildfire risk runs from 5.0 to 60.4, with a middle value of 13.4. The lowest scored places are in unincorporated San Francisco County, and the highest scored place is in San Francisco.

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San Francisco 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 San Francisco County scores Low or worse

We scored 116 points across San Francisco County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 2% of them come out High, while 74% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

High 2% · 2 of 116 points Moderate 24% · 28 of 116 points Low 74% · 86 of 116 points
Safest end we measured 5 near unincorporated San Francisco County · Low
Middle of the county 13.4 Low — half of San Francisco County is above this
Most exposed end we measured 60.4 near San Francisco · High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Very Low FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 28.7 / 100
$13k / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Very Low
8.70% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 0.97%
4.91 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 26% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates San Francisco County: all-hazards risk Very High · social vulnerability Relatively Moderate · community resilience Very High · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0000.

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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco County

Most scored points fall in the Low tier (86 points), followed by Moderate (28 points). Only 2 points are in High, and none are in Very High.

For county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates San Francisco County’s wildfire risk as “Very Low.”

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

Since 1984, 2 fire perimeters are recorded in the county, with 2 acres burned in total. That equals 0.0% of county area burned since 1984.

In this record, the largest fire is listed as Elcamino (1988), and the most recent large fire is Lincoln (1996). Both are listed at 1 acre.

An older fire, Kirby Beach (1968), is listed at 115 acres and is marked as partly in the county.

2 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
2 acres inside those perimeters since 1984
0.0% of the county's area, as a share of 597 km²
Lincoln 1996 most recent large fire on record
Named fires on record
  • Kirby Beach Fire1968115 acres in totalcrossed into the county
  • Prk Police Fire19785 acres
  • Lincoln Fire19961 acres
  • Elcamino Fire19881 acres

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · largest on record: Elcamino 1988. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.

Communities

Where in the county you are matters most

The only community listed here is San Francisco, with a population of 873,965. Its middle overall wildfire risk score is 18.9.

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates San Francisco County’s wildfire expected annual loss from wildfire as “Very Low.” In the same index, the county’s all-hazards risk rating is “Very High.”

FEMA also rates the county’s social vulnerability as “Relatively Moderate” and community resilience as “Very High.”

San Francisco city · 873,965 people
18.9 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 low in many places, with a middle value of 5.0, but they reach 40.0 at the high end in San Francisco. The minimum terrain score is 5.0 in unincorporated San Francisco County.

Vegetation and fuels also have a low middle value of 5.0, with a higher end of 56.9 in San Francisco. The minimum is 5.0 in unincorporated San Francisco County.

These two factors contribute to local differences in wildfire risk from one part of the county to another.

5 median terrain score (max 40 near San Francisco)
5 median vegetation & fuels score (max 56.9 near San Francisco)
Fire weather

Fire weather across San Francisco County

Fire weather could not be measured across the county. It was measured at only 4 of the 116 scored points, near San Francisco, where the score is 67.5.

Because that measurement is limited to a handful of points, countywide patterns here rely more on the factors that were scored broadly, including terrain, vegetation and fuels, hazard zones, and fire history.

Fire weather was measured at 4 of the 116 sampled points (near San Francisco, 67.5) — too few to publish as a county range, so no high/low is shown here.

What drives it

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

Wildfire risk is not uniform inside the county. The highest overall scored place is San Francisco at 60.4, while the minimum is 5.0 in unincorporated San Francisco County.

The city of San Francisco has a middle overall score of 18.9, compared with the countywide middle value of 13.4 across scored places.

Hazard-zone scores span from 10.0 to 82.6, and both the minimum and maximum occur in unincorporated San Francisco County. That means those unincorporated areas include both lower and higher hazard-zone locations.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across San Francisco 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
5–40 highest near San Francisco
Vegetation & fuels
5–56.9 highest near San Francisco
Hazard zone
10–82.6 highest near unincorporated San Francisco County
Fire history
5–95 highest near San Francisco
Fire weather
67.5 at one point highest near San Francisco
Overall score
5–60.4 highest near San Francisco

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 5 40 unincorporated San Francisco County San Francisco 116
Vegetation & fuels 5 5 56.9 unincorporated San Francisco County San Francisco 116
Hazard zone 10 10 82.6 unincorporated San Francisco County unincorporated San Francisco County 116
Fire history 5 5 95 unincorporated San Francisco County San Francisco 116
Fire weather* 67.5 near San Francisco 4
Composite 5 13.4 60.4 unincorporated San Francisco County San Francisco 116

*Fire weather returned a reading at only 4 of the 116 sampled points. The one value measured is shown under Max with the place beside it; there is no county range to report, so the other columns are left blank.

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 8.70% (90th percentile cell: 0.97%), with a mean conditional flame length of 4.91 ft. 26% of the 9,501 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 64 of the 116 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At 16 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 48 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.

116 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

Two mapped factors show high local peaks in the county: fire-history scores reach 95.0 in San Francisco, and hazard-zone scores reach 82.6 in unincorporated San Francisco County. At the low end, fire history is 5.0 and hazard zone is 10.0.

A separate U.S. Forest Service product estimates mean annual burn probability at 8.70% for the county, and it indicates 26.3% of the county can burn. It also reports mean conditional flame length of 4.91 feet.

For an individual home, that means nearby conditions can differ a lot even within the same county, so the address-level maps and tables matter.

Across 116 sampled points in San Francisco County, the score runs from 5 to 60.4 — 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco County

Every one of the 35 ZIP areas that touch San Francisco 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 15 of 35 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

San Francisco County wildfire risk in context

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about San Francisco County wildfire risk

Has much of San Francisco County burned since 1984?

No. The record here shows 2 acres burned since 1984, across 2 fire perimeters, which is 0.0% of the county area.

Which places score highest and lowest for overall wildfire risk?

The highest scored place is San Francisco at 60.4. The lowest score is 5.0 in unincorporated San Francisco County.

Is fire weather included countywide?

No. Fire weather was measured at only a handful of points, not across the county: 4 of 116 points, near San Francisco, with a score of 67.5 at that measured location.

What are FEMA’s county-wide wildfire ratings here?

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates San Francisco County’s wildfire risk as “Very Low” and its wildfire expected annual loss as “Very Low.” These are county-level ratings.

What does the U.S. Forest Service burn probability figure say?

It reports a mean annual burn probability of 8.70% for the county, and says 26.3% of the county can burn.

This page is generated from a San Francisco 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.

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