Dome Fire Reaches 6,632 Acres in Yosemite, 40% Contained as of Oct. 3
The Dome Fire has burned 6,632 acres in Yosemite National Park and is 40% contained as of Oct. 3, with 765 personnel assigned; Glacier Point Road stays closed.
CA
In 2025, fire departments serving El Cajon responded to 241 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 42% of all calls.
May peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,625 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $14.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 443 | — | |
| 2022 | 504 | +13.8% | |
| 2023 | 248 | -50.8% | |
| 2024* | 189 | — | |
| 2025 | 241 | — |
* Well below El Cajon's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 32 building fires El Cajon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 465 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 87 | 18.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 63 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 52 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 52 | 11.2% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 35 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 27 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 20 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 16 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Other | 15 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 11 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 87 | 18.7% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the El Cajon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 307 | 66.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 44 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 24 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 18 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 14 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 9 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 8 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 22 | 4.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by El Cajon departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $235,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $185,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. El Cajon sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 995,371 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 280,059 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 197,990 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 90,440 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 61,690 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 56,427 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Other causes | 49,390 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47,921 | 19.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20,768 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 19,575 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Recreation and ceremony | 16,677 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,390 | 15.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 14,720 | 12.8 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six California cities with population within ±25% of El Cajon. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in El Cajon.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.