USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities API

What you can build

Published USFS WRC relative wildfire-risk percentile ranks, building/housing exposure percentages and source boundaries. Community-scale modeled comparisons, not parcel assessments, insurance scores, current fire danger or dollar losses. Preserve separate state/national ranking universes, excluded areas and missing values. These public GIS services use 2023 geography and differ from the separately updated 2026 website spreadsheet. Use this dataset as a sourced input to an application, analytical model or retrieval tool. Retain its native dimensions when joining it with your own records.

Query USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities

The example below is a real bounded request against the available release. Replace the environment variable with your server-side API credential. Review endpoint parameters and response schemas before changing selectors.

curl --fail --get "https://api.geoamcan.com/v1/environment/wildfire?geo_type=county&state=06&limit=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GEOAMCAN_API_KEY"

Saved response excerpt

{
  "requested_area": {
    "geo_type": "county",
    "geoid": null,
    "state": "06",
    "q": null,
    "lat": null,
    "lon": null,
    "bbox": null,
    "include_excluded": true,
    "include_geometry": false
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "geo_type": "county",
      "source_id": 8,
      "geoid": "06091",
      "native_id": "6091",
      "name": "Sierra County",
      "state_fips": "06",
      "boundary_vintage": "2023",
      "hazard_edition": "2024",
      "excluded": false,
      "metrics": {
        "total_buildings": 3478,
        "total_housing_units": 2097,
        "housing_direct_exposure_pct": 74.94,
        "buildings_direct_exposure_pct": 76.37,
        "housing_indirect_exposure_pct": 25.06,
        "risk_to_homes_state_percentile": 98.2,
        "buildings_indirect_exposure_pct": 23.63,
        "risk_to_homes_national_percentile": 99.8,
        "wildfire_likelihood_state_percentile": 93,
        "wildfire_likelihood_national_percentile": 99.2,
        "wildfire_hazard_potential_state_percentile": 98.2,
        "wildfire_hazard_potential_national_percentile": 99.9
      },
      "flags": {},
      "attributes": {
        "id": "6091",
        "FID": 8,
        "NAME": "Sierra",
        "GEOID": "06091",
        "NAME_1": "Sierra County, CA",
        "STUSPS": "CA",
        "GEOIDFQ": "0500000US06091",
        "STATEFP": "06",
        "vintage": "2023",
        "COUNTYFP": "091",
        "COUNTYNS": "00277310",
        "NAMELSAD": "Sierra County"
      }
    }
  ],
  "availability": {
    "status": "available",
    "coverage": [
      {
        "records": 3144,
        "excluded": 0,
        "geo_type": "county",
        "unlocated": 0,
        "hazard_edition": "2024",
        "boundary_vintage": "2023"
      }
    ]
  },
  "snapshot": {
    "usfs-wildfire": {
      "release_id": 116,
      "release": "USFS WRC 2024 model; 2023 boundaries; GIS revision b2f5a7b3ae7b",
      "fingerprint": "a9f22a3012f9a21a122826d2fb5d7129"
    }
  },
  "returned_count": 1,
  "complete": false,
  "next_offset": 1,
  "limitations": [
    "USFS WRC 2nd edition (2024) modeled relative risk with 2023 source boundaries. Percentile ranks are not annual burn probabilities, dollar losses, current fire danger or insurance scores. Use community-scale comparisons, not parcel/home assessments. State and national rank universes remain separate; do not sum or average ranks. Excluded areas and source missing/censored values remain explicit. GIS services differ from the separately updated 2026 website spreadsheet. Native tribal identifiers and cross-state areas are not county identifiers."
  ],
  "source_attribution": {
    "usfs-wildfire": "USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station — Wildfire Risk to Communities; https://wildfirerisk.org/"
  },
  "metric_definitions": {
    "total_buildings": {
      "publisher_alias": "TOTAL_BUILDINGS",
      "unit": "buildings",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "total_housing_units": {
      "publisher_alias": "TOTAL_HOUSING_UNITS",
      "unit": "housing_units",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "buildings_indirect_exposure_pct": {
      "publisher_alias": "BUILDINGS_FRACTION_IE",
      "unit": "percent",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "buildings_direct_exposure_pct": {
      "publisher_alias": "BUILDINGS_FRACTION_DE",
      "unit": "percent",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "housing_indirect_exposure_pct": {
      "publisher_alias": "HU_FRACTION_IE",
      "unit": "percent",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "housing_direct_exposure_pct": {
      "publisher_alias": "HU_FRACTION_DE",
      "unit": "percent",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "wildfire_likelihood_state_percentile": {
      "publisher_alias": "BP_STATE_RANK",
      "unit": "percentile_rank_0_100",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "wildfire_likelihood_national_percentile": {
      "publisher_alias": "BP_NATIONAL_RANK",
      "unit": "percentile_rank_0_100",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "risk_to_homes_state_percentile": {
      "publisher_alias": "RISK_STATE_RANK",
      "unit": "percentile_rank_0_100",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "risk_to_homes_national_percentile": {
      "publisher_alias": "RISK_NATIONAL_RANK",
      "unit": "percentile_rank_0_100",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "wildfire_hazard_potential_state_percentile": {
      "publisher_alias": "WHP_STATE_RANK",
      "unit": "percentile_rank_0_100",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    },
    "wildfire_hazard_potential_national_percentile": {
      "publisher_alias": "WHP_NATIONAL_RANK",
      "unit": "percentile_rank_0_100",
      "unavailable": "null with source marker in flags"
    }
  }
}

Captured 2026-11-05. Excerpt omits pagination credentials and may shorten nested records. Download verified source responses.

Coverage and interpretation

USDA Forest Service WRC second-edition (2024) modeled relative risk and published 2023 community, county, state and tribal-area boundaries. State and national percentile ranks use a 0–100 scale; a likelihood percentile is not an annual probability of burning. Exposure percentages and source building/housing counts retain their units. Excluded areas and unavailable/censored values remain explicit. Compare whole source areas; never sum or average ranks, infer current fire danger, or treat these data as parcel assessments or insurance scores. These official GIS services differ from the separately updated 2026 website spreadsheet. Native tribal identifiers, geography vintages and any geometry repairs remain visible.

The active release shown here is a catalog snapshot. Check the live catalog and response provenance for current readiness. The underlying public source and Geoamcan access terms are separate; consult the source’s licensing and attribution requirements.

Source and methodology

Source: USDA Forest Service. Geoamcan is an independent API provider, with no agency affiliation or endorsement. Read our data methodology for source handling, geographic joins and update practices.

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