The Border 2 Fire was a wildfire that burned in the Otay Mountain area of San Diego County, two miles north of the U.S.–Mexico border. It is part of the Southern California wildfires of January 2025. The fire started around 2:30 pm PST on January 23, 2025, amid a strong Santa Ana event, and was located in parched chaparral and rugged terrain, allowing the fire to grow rapidly.

Despite many smaller brush fires igniting on Otay Mountain throughout the years following the Harris Fire of October 2007, which burned a significant portion of the Otay Mountain Wilderness, much of the area had not seen significant fire activity since, leading to a glut of overgrown native chaparral in the area which allowed the current fire to burn aggressively.

The fire, named the Border 2 Fire due to it being the second fire of significance to ignite near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2025, started at around 2:30 pm PST and proceeded to burn 600 acres atop Otay Mountain through much of the afternoon at "dangerous rate" of spread. Throughout its first night, it displayed extreme fire behavior as it exploded to several thousand acres due to the wind and inaccessible terrain. This growth prompted mandatory evacuations of rural communities north, east and west of the fire area, including parts of Chula Vista and Jamul.

As of January 26, 2025, the cause of the fire is under investigation.

• 2025 California wildfires
• 2016 Border Fire
• Border 32 Fire (2022)

 This article incorporates text from https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/23/border-2-fire, a public domain work of the Government of California.