El Cerrito (Contra Costa), CA
El Cerrito (Contra Costa) wildfire risk explained
El Cerrito (Contra Costa)'s 9,750 buildings earn a 82nd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts El Cerrito (Contra Costa) at the 83rd percentile, close to its 82nd-percentile risk score.
El Cerrito (Contra Costa)'s building exposure, zone by zone
9,750 buildings are counted in El Cerrito (Contra Costa), and 65.4% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 4.5% in Direct exposure or the 30.1% rated Minimal. At 9,750 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
El Cerrito (Contra Costa) against the rest of the country
El Cerrito (Contra Costa) ranks lower within California (44th percentile statewide) than its 82nd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, El Cerrito (Contra Costa) ranks 5,601 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,676 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 885 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
El Cerrito (Contra Costa)'s 82nd-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
Hardening a home in El Cerrito (Contra Costa)
Because 65.4% of El Cerrito (Contra Costa)'s buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where El Cerrito (Contra Costa)'s figures come from
El Cerrito (Contra Costa)'s 82nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what El Cerrito (Contra Costa)'s dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.