Two house fires broke out in Tijuana over a 24-hour period ending March 22, damaging wooden homes in the Lomas de San Martín and La Morita neighborhoods. No injuries were reported in either blaze, and the Tijuana Fire Department handled 46 other emergency calls during the same stretch.
Lomas de San Martín Blaze Contained to Two Rooms
The first fire struck a one-story wooden house in Lomas de San Martín, a hillside colonia on Tijuana’s eastern periphery. Ten firefighters responded and managed to contain the damage to two rooms. No residents or responders were hurt.
A second fire broke out in La Morita, a large residential area southeast of central Tijuana near the Tijuana River channel. That blaze destroyed a one-story wooden home entirely. Firefighters again reported zero casualties.
Wooden Homes and Fire Risk in Tijuana’s Outer Colonias
Both neighborhoods sit in Tijuana’s sprawling outer ring, where many homes are built from wood, pallets, and mixed materials. These areas often lack reliable fire hydrant access, and narrow unpaved streets can slow emergency vehicles. The World Bank’s ThinkHazard platform rates Tijuana’s wildfire risk as high, with climate projections pointing toward more frequent fire weather in the region.
Tijuana’s Fire Department has faced a heavy workload in recent years. The 46 additional emergency calls logged between Saturday and Sunday morning offer a snapshot of the pace crews maintain across a city of roughly 2 million people. Large fires in informal settlements can escalate quickly: a separate pair of blazes earlier this year in the El Niño and Terrazas del Valle neighborhoods destroyed 29 homes combined.
Lomas de San Martín and La Morita are both accessible from Boulevard Lázaro Cárdenas, one of Tijuana’s main east-west arteries. La Morita sits about 12 miles southeast of the San Ysidro border crossing, while Lomas de San Martín is roughly 10 miles east of the same port of entry.
No official cause was announced for either fire. The Tijuana Fire Department has not yet released a full incident report, according to La Jornada Baja California.