Wildfire risk in Contra Costa County spans a wide range across the places we scored. Scores run from 12.7 in North Richmond to 77.4 in Clayton, with a county middle value of 32.6.
We scored 194 points across Contra Costa 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 38% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
FEMA NRI also rates Contra Costa County: all-hazards risk Very High · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Relatively High · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0048.
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 Contra Costa 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.
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Looking at the four address-style risk tiers, the largest group of scored locations falls in the Low tier (73), followed by Moderate (64) and High (55). Very High shows up, but only in a small number of places.
For county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Contra Costa County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively High.
Since 1984, 12,119 acres have burned within recorded perimeters in Contra Costa County. That equals 2.4% of the county, across 42 fire perimeters.
The largest fire listed for this county is Morgan (2013), and it is also the most recent large fire. Its recorded size is 3,108 acres.
Other named fires in the county record include Mitchell Canyon (1977), which reached 4,859 acres, and Blackhawk (1981).
Fire perimeters coloured by decade. Select a perimeter for its name, year and size.
Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · largest on record: Morgan 2013. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.
Community-level patterns show both lower-risk and higher-risk pockets. North Richmond is at 13.4, while Kensington is at 64.9.
Among the largest cities, Antioch is higher at 36.9, while Concord (18.8) and Richmond (19.6) are lower.
Several foothill and edge communities sit higher than nearby urban centers, including Moraga (54.1), Orinda (51.8), and Lafayette (44.8).
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 exposure varies a lot by location. The terrain score ranges from 5.0 in Richmond to 65.0 in Camino Tassajara, with a county middle value of 20.0.
Vegetation and fuels also vary widely. Scores run from 5.0 in Byron up to 76.8 in Diablo, and the county middle value is 40.0.
Hazard-zone scores are low in many places but reach very high values in some areas: the middle value is 10.0, while Moraga reaches 90.0.
Fire-history scores are also uneven. The middle value is 5.0, and Blackhawk reaches 95.0.
Fire-weather scores were measured across the county and are tightly grouped. Values run from 61.9 in Byron to 69.2 in Discovery Bay, with a middle value of 67.9.
Separately, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities model reports a mean annual burn probability of 0.65% and a 90th-percentile cell value of 1.40%. It also shows that 68.9% of the county is in areas that can burn.
Risk is not even across the county. The lowest scored location is North Richmond at 12.7, while the highest is Clayton at 77.4.
Among named communities, higher middle scores appear in places like Kensington (64.9) and Clayton (64.0), while North Richmond is much lower at 13.4.
Even among larger cities and towns, differences are clear: Antioch is at 36.9, Concord at 18.8, and Martinez at 54.0.
Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Contra Costa 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.
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.
| Layer | Min | Median | Max | Lowest place | Highest place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terrain | 5 | 20 | 65 | Richmond | Camino Tassajara | 194 |
| Vegetation & fuels | 5 | 40 | 76.8 | Byron | Diablo | 194 |
| Hazard zone | 10 | 10 | 90 | San Ramon | Moraga | 194 |
| Fire history | 5 | 5 | 95 | Norris Canyon | Blackhawk | 194 |
| Fire weather | 61.9 | 67.9 | 69.2 | Byron | Discovery Bay | 194 |
| Composite | 12.7 | 32.6 | 77.4 | North Richmond | Clayton | 194 |
Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.65% (90th percentile cell: 1.40%), with a mean conditional flame length of 3.14 ft. 69% of the 24,362 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 4 of the 194 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 2 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 2 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.
194 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 homeowner or buyer, the key point is that wildfire risk changes a lot by location in Contra Costa County. The scored locations are spread across Low, Moderate, High, and Very High tiers, with the largest count in Low (73).
Nearby places can still look very different on specific risk components. For example, hazard-zone scores are 10.0 in San Ramon and 90.0 in Moraga.
County-wide ratings give added context but are not neighborhood-specific. FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Contra Costa County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate and its all-hazards risk as Very High.
Find out where your Contra Costa 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
Every one of the 60 ZIP areas that touch Contra Costa 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 10 ZIPs
Moderate 20 ZIPs
Low 13 ZIPs
No sampled point inside 17 ZIPs
94519 Concord · 94546 Norris Canyon · 94548 Knightsen · 94552 Norris Canyon · 94568 San Ramon · 94571 Antioch · 94575 Moraga · 94590 Crockett · 94611 Canyon · 94619 Canyon · 94705 Orinda · 94706 Kensington · 94707 Kensington · 94710 El Cerrito · 95206 Discovery Bay · 95304 Byron · 95391 Byron
Grouped from 43 of 60 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.
The largest fire listed is Morgan (2013) at 3,108 acres. It is also the most recent large fire in the county record.
2.4% of Contra Costa County has burned since 1984, totaling 12,119 acres across 42 fire perimeters.
No. Scores range from 12.7 in North Richmond to 77.4 in Clayton, so risk can differ substantially from one community to another.
In the county scoring, fire-weather values are in a narrow band, from 61.9 to 69.2. A separate USFS model reports mean annual burn probability as 0.65% and a 90th-percentile cell value of 1.40%.
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Contra Costa County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate and wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively High.
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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