Two Lithium-Ion Battery Fires in Three Weeks Destroy Homes in Pasco County, Florida
Battery fires in Zephyrhills and New Port Richey destroyed two homes, killed a dog and displaced six people between Aug. 31 and Sept. 18.
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In 2025, fire departments serving Belleair responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 93% of all calls.
May peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
77 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 47 | +261.5% | |
| 2025 | 14 | -70.2% |
* Well below Belleair'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 0 building fires Belleair departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 4 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 | Office | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 25.0% |
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 Belleair mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 25.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Belleair sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 27,546 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Natural | 3,000 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,275 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 2,000 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,939 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,500 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 1,427 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 1,300 | 49.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 1,287 | 26.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 1,000 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 812 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 44.5 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Florida cities with population within ±25% of Belleair. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.