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 Dade City responded to 168 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Dade City's departments reported 168 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 310 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,549 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $6.8M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 368 | — | |
| 2022 | 369 | +0.3% | |
| 2023 | 346 | -6.2% | |
| 2024 | 298 | -13.9% | |
| 2025* | 168 | — |
* Well below Dade City'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 Dade City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 409 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 | 76 | 18.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 55 | 13.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 43 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 34 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 22 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 19 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Other | 15 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 11 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 10 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 112 | 27.4% |
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 Dade City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 127 | 31.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 46 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 37 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 22 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Radiated heat from another fire | 16 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 15 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 14 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 89 | 21.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dade City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $36,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $35,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dade City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 61,976 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 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,407 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 3,000 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2,507 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 2,500 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,300 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,275 | 26.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,189 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 2,000 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 2,000 | 35.2 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 Dade City. 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.