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2025 Annual Fire Report

Fires in Santee, California

In 2025, fire departments serving Santee responded to 171 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.

Updated Sep 27, 2026 Grade A- Peak yr 2024 San Diego County 59,497 residents 0 reporting departments 1,139 5-yr
Total incidents
171
-44.8% vs 2024
Building fires
11
Residential 64% Other 36%
Property loss
$393K
$279K structure · $114K contents
Deaths & injuries
0 / 0
0 civilian deaths · 0 civ injuries · 0 firefighter injuries
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.

171
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 34 19.9%
Outside rubbish fire, other 21 12.3%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 13 7.6%
Building fires 11 6.4%
Natural vegetation fire, other 10 5.8%
All other categories 82 48.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen?

Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.

Jan 26
Feb 19
Mar 11
Apr 10
May 20
Jun 18
Jul 15
Aug 16
Sep 11
Oct 8
Nov 3
Dec 14
Fewer
More
2b Five-year trend

Year over year in Santee

1,139 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $4.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.

YearIncidentsYoY 
2021* 133 —
2022 241 —
2023 284 +17.8%
2024 310 +9.2%
2025 171 -44.8%

* Well below Santee'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.

03 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 11 building fires Santee departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.

Unintentional
39%
11
Cause undetermined
29%
8
Intentional / arson
18%
5
Equipment / heat source failure
7%
2
Under investigation
7%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
3b Where fires start

Where do fires start in Santee?

NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 238 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 originCountShare 
1 Undetermined 59 24.8%
2 Engine area, running gear, wheel area 35 14.7%
3 Outside area, other 28 11.8%
4 Other 17 7.1%
5 Cooking area, kitchen 11 4.6%
6 Vehicle storage area; garage, carport 8 3.4%
7 Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste 7 2.9%
8 Open area - outside; included are farmland, field 7 2.9%
9 Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison 6 2.5%
10 Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. 5 2.1%
11 All other areas 55 23.1%
3c What ignited it

What actually ignited the fire?

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 Santee mix.

#Heat sourceCountShare 
1 Undetermined 146 61.3%
2 Heat from powered equipment, other 17 7.1%
3 Hot or smoldering object, other 14 5.9%
4 Arcing 12 5.0%
5 Hot ember or ash 10 4.2%
6 Heat source: other 9 3.8%
7 Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment 4 1.7%
8 Heat, spark from friction 4 1.7%
9 Cigarette 4 1.7%
10 Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment 3 1.3%
11 All other sources 15 6.3%
04 The biggest fires

8 fires · $268K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses reported by Santee departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 96% of the city's annual total.

# Property loss Type Severity Status
1 $150,000 Building fires Significant Investigated
2 $60,000 Building fires Significant Investigated
3 $15,000 Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire Significant Investigated
4 $15,000 Fires in structures other than in a building Significant Investigated
5 $13,000 Passenger vehicle fire Significant Investigated
6 $5,000 Passenger vehicle fire Significant Investigated
7 $5,000 Building fires Significant Investigated
8 $5,000 Passenger vehicle fire Significant Investigated
05 How Santee compares

Santee vs California vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Santee sits below the national average for incidents per resident.

2.87
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Santee
2.87
CA avg
5.32
US avg
7.48
0.18
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Santee
0.18
CA avg
0.32
US avg
0.85
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Santee
0
CA avg
2.9
US avg
5.9
5b Who gets hurt

Casualty demographics in Santee

5 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.

AgeCount 
0-9 0
10-19 0
20-29 1
30-39 0
40-49 0
50-59 0
60-69 0
70-79 1
80+ 0
Civilian vs firefighter
Civilian 4 FF 1
Gender
M 4 F 1 Unk 0
Severity (1=minor → 5=fatal)
1
1
1
2
0
3
1
4
2
5
5c Wildfires nearby

Wildfires within 50 mi of Santee

Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,015,951 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.

50 mi radius
YearCauseAcresDistance 
2003 Recreation and ceremony 280,059 17.4 mi
2007 Power generation/transmission/distribution 197,990 21.9 mi
2007 Recreation and ceremony 90,440 29.2 mi
2002 Equipment and vehicle use 61,690 29.3 mi
2003 Arson/incendiarism 56,427 27.7 mi
2007 Other causes 49,390 29.9 mi
2003 Missing data/not specified/undetermined 47,921 23.6 mi
2007 Missing data/not specified/undetermined 21,004 47.3 mi
1993 Missing data/not specified/undetermined 20,768 20.9 mi
2003 Natural 19,575 42.2 mi
2006 Recreation and ceremony 16,677 19.6 mi
2020 Missing data/not specified/undetermined 16,390 18.1 mi
5d Top ZIPs

Where in Santee do fires concentrate?

Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.

#ZIP5-yr incidents 
1 92071 1,129
2 92123 9
3 92020 1
5e Peer cities

Cities similar to Santee

Six California cities with population within ±25% of Santee. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.

07 Stay prepared

Before the next Red Flag day.

A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.

About this data

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.