Wildfire risk in Solano County: where it is highest, and why
Wildfire risk in Solano County spans a wide range across the places we scored. The lowest place-level score is 12.8 in Vallejo, while the highest is 80.6 near Vacaville. The middle value is 26.2.
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 Moderate 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 44% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
13%
42%
44%
Very High1% · 2 of 158 pointsHigh13% · 21 of 158 pointsModerate42% · 66 of 158 pointsLow44% · 69 of 158 points
Safest end we measured12.8near Vallejo · Low
Middle of the county26.2Moderate — half of Solano County is above this
Most exposed end we measured80.6near 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 locations fall in the Low tier, with 69 points, and the next biggest group is Moderate, with 66.
Higher-risk locations are present but less common: 21 scored points are in High, and 2 are in Very High.
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
Since 1984, 63,083 acres have burned in Solano County, and 35 fire perimeters are recorded. That burned area equals 10.9% of the county.
The largest fire listed for county history is the Miller fire in 1988 at 34,565 acres. The most recent large fire is the Nelson fire in 2018 at 2,158 acres.
The Atlas fire in 2017 burned 51,625 acres and was partly in Solano County. The Wragg fire in 2015 burned 8,049 acres.
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 named communities, Fairfield has a median wildfire risk score of 45.5, Cordelia is 43.7, and Vacaville is 36.4.
Lower community medians include Vallejo at 21.8, Suisun City at 23.9, and Dixon at 24.0.
Benicia is 27.0 and Rio Vista is 24.8, which puts them between the county’s lower and higher community medians.
Fairfieldcity · 117,133 people
45.5 Moderate
Cordeliavillage
43.7 Moderate
Vacavillecity · 100,670 people
36.4 Moderate
Beniciatown · 28,240 people
27 Moderate
Rio Vistatown · 9,718 people
24.8 Low
Dixontown · 20,698 people
24 Low
Suisun Citytown · 29,663 people
23.9 Low
Vallejocity · 121,692 people
21.8 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 exposure is low in some city areas and much higher in hillier spots. Terrain scores run from 5.0 in Vallejo to 65.0 near Vacaville, with a middle value of 20.0.
Vegetation and fuels show an even wider climb. Scores run from 5.0 in Vallejo to 80.0 near Vacaville, and the middle value is 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 scores are high in all the places scored, and they sit in a relatively tight band. The low end is 60.2 near Vallejo, the middle is 68.1, and the high end is 69.8 in Dixon.
So compared with terrain or fuels, fire-weather differences between places are smaller, even though the overall level is elevated.
60.2lowest fire-weather score — near Vallejo
69.8highest fire-weather score — near Dixon
What drives it
Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't
Risk is not uniform inside the county. Scores range from 12.8 in Vallejo up to 80.6 near Vacaville, showing a large spread by location.
Hazard-zone scores also vary by place: the low end is 10.0 in Benicia, and the high end is 90.0 in Cordelia.
Fire-history scores are similarly uneven, from 5.0 in Vallejo to 95.0 near Vacaville.
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
60.2–69.8highest near Dixon
Overall score
12.8–80.6highest 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
68.1
69.8
near Vallejo
Dixon
158
Composite
12.8
26.2
80.6
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 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 county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Solano County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate, and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively Moderate. FEMA rates the county’s all-hazards risk as Relatively High.
In the same FEMA index, social vulnerability is rated Relatively Low and community resilience is rated Relatively High.
A separate U.S. Forest Service burn-probability model reports a mean annual burn probability of 0.48% for the county, with higher-end locations in that model at 1.09%.
That same model indicates 70.7% of the county can burn, and it reports a mean conditional flame length of 3.18 feet. These burn-probability figures are separate from the fire-weather scores shown for local places.
Across 158 sampled points in Solano County, the score runs from
12.8 to 80.6 — 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 in recent decades?
Since 1984, 63,083 acres have burned, which is 10.9% of the county.
What are the key fires to know in this county?
The largest listed fire is Miller (1988), at 34,565 acres. The most recent large fire is Nelson (2018), at 2,158 acres. Atlas (2017) burned 51,625 acres and was partly in Solano County.
Do most places in the county score high for wildfire risk?
No. The biggest group of scored locations is Low (69), followed by Moderate (66). High (21) and Very High (2) are smaller groups.
Is wildfire risk the same in every city and town?
No. Community medians vary, from 21.8 in Vallejo to 45.5 in Fairfield, with Cordelia at 43.7 and Vacaville at 36.4.
What does FEMA say about county-wide wildfire risk?
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Solano County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate, and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively Moderate.
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.
