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 Grand Ridge responded to 98 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 66% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
241 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 42 | — | |
| 2022* | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 29 | — | |
| 2024 | 59 | +103.4% | |
| 2025 | 98 | +66.1% |
* Well below Grand Ridge'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 9 building fires Grand Ridge departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 122 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 | 68 | 55.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 16 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 4.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 6.6% |
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 Grand Ridge mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 77 | 63.1% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 6 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 4.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Grand Ridge departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $85,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Grand Ridge sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 120,995 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 26,279 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 24,602 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,458 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,498 | 34.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,400 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,679 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 6,675 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,384 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,983 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 2,624 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,614 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,367 | 38.4 mi |
Top 5 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 Grand Ridge. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Grand Ridge.
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.