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 Coral Gables responded to 263 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,130 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $43.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 98 | — | |
| 2022 | 247 | — | |
| 2023 | 274 | +10.9% | |
| 2024 | 248 | -9.5% | |
| 2025 | 263 | +6.0% |
* Well below Coral Gables'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 10 building fires Coral Gables departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 191 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 | Other | 30 | 15.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 18 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 18 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 12 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Equipment or service area, other | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 63 | 33.0% |
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 Coral Gables mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 51 | 26.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 26 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 25 | 13.1% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 21 | 11.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 18 | 9.4% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 8 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Candle | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 16 | 8.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Coral Gables departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $12,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Coral Gables sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 866,853 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 158,000 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 68,295 | 14.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 62,404 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 57,000 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 49,500 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 42,000 | 42.2 mi | |
| 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 41,000 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39,465 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 39,000 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 30,636 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 29,937 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 26,428 | 48.4 mi |
Top 10 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 Coral Gables. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Coral Gables.
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.