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.
FL
In 2025, fire departments serving Bushnell responded to 129 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
517 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.5M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 130 | — | |
| 2023 | 117 | -10.0% | |
| 2024 | 140 | +19.7% | |
| 2025 | 129 | -7.9% |
* Well below Bushnell'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 5 building fires Bushnell departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 218 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 61 | 28.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 46 | 21.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 35 | 16.1% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 14 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Other | 9 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 26 | 11.9% |
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 Bushnell mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 88 | 40.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 20 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 13 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 9 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 8 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 33 | 15.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bushnell departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 91% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $13,510 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $11,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bushnell sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
17 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 79,673 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10,119 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,022 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 4,014 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,407 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 3,175 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 3,149 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,111 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 2,551 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2,507 | 26.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 2,500 | 49.0 mi |
Top 2 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 Bushnell. 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.