Published national figures from Angi (2026) put most fire restoration projects between about $3,100 and about $52,000, with an average near $27,500, and cleanup work commonly priced at $4 to $7 per square foot. The range is honest because the losses are genuinely that different: a contained kitchen fire with smoke through the house is a cleaning job in the low thousands to low five figures, while a structural fire adds demolition, framing, roofing, and months of rebuild.
El Cajon fire jobs price on the four phases, not the burn size. A kitchen fire can carry a small burn line and the largest odor line on the street, because protein smoke runs house-wide. The itemized scope should show board-up, soot removal, odor treatment, water drying, and contents packout as separate lines, so you can see which phase is carrying the total and the adjuster can evaluate each on its own evidence.
The drivers, in the order they usually move the total: how much structure burned, how far smoke and soot spread (which sets the cleaning area), how much water has to be extracted and dried, how much contents work is involved, and how long the home is uninhabitable. Temporary housing is a real cost of the loss even when the insurer carries it under loss of use.
The written scope is where cost control lives. An itemized scope can be compared line by line with the adjuster's estimate, and differences get argued on specifics instead of totals. If a contractor will only give one lump number over the phone, keep looking: the estimate you want comes after an in person assessment and arrives in writing.
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