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 Dundee responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
191 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $175K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 19 | — | |
| 2022 | 60 | — | |
| 2023 | 33 | -45.0% | |
| 2024 | 44 | +33.3% | |
| 2025 | 35 | -20.5% |
* Well below Dundee'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 2 building fires Dundee departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 45 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 | Undetermined | 16 | 35.6% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 5 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 15.6% |
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 Dundee mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 26 | 57.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 9 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 3 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 2.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dundee departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dundee sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 134,357 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 | 17,000 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 13,000 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 12,564 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10,119 | 17.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 34.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 7,000 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5,964 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 4,200 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 4,200 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 4,018 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 3,900 | 35.6 mi |
Top 8 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 Dundee. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dundee.
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.