Wildfire risk in Solano County: where it is highest, and why
Wildfire risk in Solano County varies a lot from place to place. Across the places we scored, overall scores run from 6.7 in Vallejo to 82.6 near Vacaville, with a county middle point of 23.9.
Solano 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 Solano County scores Low or worse
We scored 158 points across Solano County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 1% of them come out Very High, while 53% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
13%
32%
53%
Very High1% · 2 of 158 pointsHigh13% · 21 of 158 pointsModerate32% · 51 of 158 pointsLow53% · 84 of 158 points
Safest end we measured6.7near Vallejo · Low
Middle of the county23.9Low — half of Solano County is above this
Most exposed end we measured82.6near Vacaville · Very High
And the federal models agree it is a fire county
Relatively ModerateFEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 94.5 / 100
$3.5M / yrFEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate
0.48%USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 1.09%
3.18 ftUSFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 71% of the county carries burnable fuel
FEMA NRI also rates Solano County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Relatively High · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0056.
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 Solano 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 Solano County
Most scored points fall in the lower two tiers: Low has 84 points and Moderate has 51. Only 2 points are in the Very High tier, so the highest-risk locations are concentrated rather than widespread.
For countywide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Solano County’s wildfire risk as "Relatively Moderate." FEMA also rates the county’s all-hazards risk as "Relatively High."
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
Since 1984, 63,083 acres have burned in Solano County, and that equals 10.9% of the county. The county record also lists 35 fire perimeters in that period.
The largest fire listed for the county is the Miller fire in 1988, at 34,565 acres.
The most recent large fire listed is the Nelson fire in 2018, at 2,158 acres. Another major event tied to the county is the Atlas fire in 2017 at 51,625 acres, which was partly in Solano County.
Wragg Fire, 2015 — Solano County.
Photo: Sarah Stierch · CC BY 4.0Atlas Fire, 2017 — Solano County.
Photo: USDAgov · Public domain
35mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
63,083acres inside those perimeters since 1984
10.9%of the county's area, as a share of 2,342.6 km²
Nelson 2018most 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
Miller Fire198834,565 acres
Wragg Fire20158,049 acres
Atlas Fire201751,625 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Wild Fire20084,102 acres
Peterson Estates #2 Fire19576,259 acres
Gates Canyon Fire19555,552 acres
Nelson Fire20182,158 acres
Martell Fire19763,785 acres
Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · largest on record: Miller 1988.
Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.
Communities
Where in the county you are matters most
Among the largest cities, Fairfield has the highest middle wildfire-risk score at 45.5. Vacaville is lower at 36.4, and Vallejo is much lower at 16.7.
Cordelia stands out at 43.7, close to Fairfield’s level. Suisun City is 23.9 and Benicia is 22.4, both in a lower range than Fairfield and Cordelia.
Dixon and Rio Vista are on the lower side as well, at 18.9 and 19.9. So within Solano County, communities cluster at very different risk levels.
Fairfieldcity · 117,133 people
45.5 Moderate
Cordeliavillage
43.7 Moderate
Vacavillecity · 100,670 people
36.4 Moderate
Suisun Citytown · 29,663 people
23.9 Low
Beniciatown · 28,240 people
22.4 Low
Rio Vistatown · 9,718 people
19.9 Low
Dixontown · 20,698 people
18.9 Low
Vallejocity · 121,692 people
16.7 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 contributes to these differences. Terrain scores range from 5.0 in Vallejo to 65.0 near Vacaville, with a middle value of 20.0.
Vegetation and fuels show a wider middle level than terrain. Scores run from 5.0 in Vallejo to 80.0 near Vacaville, with a county middle value of 40.0.
20median terrain score (max 65 near Vacaville)
40median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Vacaville)
Fire weather
Fire weather across Solano County
Fire weather was measured across the county and is consistently elevated in score. It ranges from 60.2 near Vallejo to 68.5 near Rio Vista, with a middle value of 68.0.
A separate USFS county product lists mean annual burn probability as 0.48% and a 90th-percentile cell value of 1.09%. Those are burn-probability figures, not local fire-weather scores.
That same USFS product indicates 70.7% of the county can burn, with a mean conditional flame length of 3.18 feet.
60.2lowest fire-weather score — near Vallejo
68.5highest fire-weather score — near Rio Vista
What drives it
Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't
Risk is not uniform across Solano County. Vallejo sits at the low end of the scored range at 6.7, while the highest scored location is near Vacaville at 82.6.
Among named communities, Fairfield has a higher middle score at 45.5, and Cordelia is close at 43.7. Vallejo is much lower at 16.7.
Vacaville’s middle score is 36.4, which is above Suisun City at 23.9 and Benicia at 22.4. This spread shows why neighborhood-level differences matter inside the same county.
Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Solano 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
5–65highest near Vacaville
Vegetation & fuels
5–80highest near Vacaville
Hazard zone
10–90highest near Cordelia
Fire history
5–95highest near Vacaville
Fire weather
60.2–68.5highest near Rio Vista
Overall score
6.7–82.6highest near Vacaville
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
20
65
Vallejo
near Vacaville
158
Vegetation & fuels
5
40
80
Vallejo
near Vacaville
158
Hazard zone
10
10
90
Benicia
Cordelia
158
Fire history
5
5
95
Vallejo
near Vacaville
158
Fire weather
60.2
68
68.5
near Vallejo
near Rio Vista
69
Composite
6.7
23.9
82.6
Vallejo
near Vacaville
158
Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.48% (90th percentile cell: 1.09%), with a mean conditional flame length of 3.18 ft. 71% of the 23,499 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 3 of the 158 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 2 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 1 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.
158 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
At the property-area level, hazard-zone scores are low in many scored places but can jump in specific locations. The middle hazard-zone score is 10.0, the minimum is 10.0 in Benicia, and the maximum reaches 90.0 in Cordelia.
Fire-history scores are also uneven. The middle value is 5.0, but the highest scored location near Vacaville reaches 95.0 while Vallejo is at 5.0.
For a homeowner, buyer, or agent, this means two addresses in the same county can sit in very different wildfire-risk settings because terrain, fuels, hazard-zone level, and fire history do not line up the same way everywhere.
Across 158 sampled points in Solano County, the score runs from
6.7 to 82.6 — 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 Solano 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 Solano County
Every one of the 27 ZIP areas that touch Solano 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 Solano County wildfire risk
How much of Solano County has burned since 1984?
10.9% of the county has burned since 1984, totaling 63,083 acres.
What were the largest and most recent large fires listed for Solano County?
The largest listed is Miller (1988) at 34,565 acres. The most recent large fire listed is Nelson (2018) at 2,158 acres.
Which communities score higher or lower for wildfire risk?
Fairfield (45.5) and Cordelia (43.7) are on the higher side of the named communities, while Vallejo (16.7) is lower. Vacaville is in between at 36.4.
What does FEMA say about countywide wildfire risk?
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Solano County’s wildfire risk as "Relatively Moderate." It rates the county’s all-hazards risk as "Relatively High."
This page is generated from a Solano 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.
