Orinda Wildfire Risk: Diablo Winds Meet Wooded Hillsides

Orinda's oak-studded hills and wooded residential lots sit squarely in the Diablo wind corridor that has driven the East Bay's worst fire disasters. With Briones Regional Park and open space on all sides, understanding your wildfire risk is essential.

Orinda is a residential community of nearly 20,000 people tucked into the wooded hills east of the Caldecott Tunnel in Contra Costa County. The town's neighborhoods—from the estates along El Toyonal and Miner Road to the homes clustered around Orinda Village and the Crossroads—are characterized by large lots, mature oak and bay laurel canopy, and a landscape that blurs the line between residential and wildland.

The town sits in one of the Bay Area's most active Diablo wind corridors. When hot, dry northeast winds funnel through the gaps in the hills east of the Oakland-Berkeley ridge, Orinda catches the full force. These same winds drove the 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm just a few miles to the west, and fire behavior modeling shows that a fire igniting in or near Orinda during a Diablo wind event could produce similar devastation. CAL FIRE designates most of Orinda as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.