In 2025, fire departments serving La Mesa responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
76 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023 | 29 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | -55.2% | |
| 2025 | 18 | +38.5% |
* Well below La Mesa'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 2 building fires La Mesa departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 49 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 | 15 | 30.6% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 24.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 11 | 22.4% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Chute; laundry or mail, excluding trash chutes | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Wall assembly | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 2.0% |
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 La Mesa mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 38 | 77.6% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 6.1% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 4.1% | |
| 4 | Match | 2 | 4.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. La Mesa sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 89,655 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Natural | 13,804 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 13,424 | 17.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 11,856 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 9,000 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,160 | 16.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5,045 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,000 | 42.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 3,650 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,582 | 11.2 mi | |
| 1997 | Natural | 2,400 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,150 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 2,000 | 41.5 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six New Mexico cities with population within ±25% of La Mesa. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in La Mesa.
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.