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 Jacksonville responded to 3,986 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
19,439 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $15K cumulative property loss. 25 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,590 | — | |
| 2022 | 3,958 | +10.3% | |
| 2023 | 4,006 | +1.2% | |
| 2024 | 3,899 | -2.7% | |
| 2025 | 3,986 | +2.2% |
For the 297 building fires Jacksonville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7,471 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 | 1,638 | 21.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 992 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 790 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 604 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 443 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 327 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 294 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 231 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 226 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 144 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,782 | 23.9% |
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 Jacksonville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 7,462 | 99.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 5 | 0.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 0.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 0.0% | |
| 5 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 0.0% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 0.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Jacksonville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
92 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 | 12 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 8 | |
| 30-39 | 13 | |
| 40-49 | 13 | |
| 50-59 | 11 | |
| 60-69 | 20 | |
| 70-79 | 9 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,202,596 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 309,200 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 191,474 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 152,515 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 124,110 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 123,014 | 42.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 69,060 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 34,936 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 34,660 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 28,985 | 41.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 20,100 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 16,100 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 14,626 | 42.2 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.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Jacksonville.
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.