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 Kenneth City responded to 28 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $90K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
88 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $562K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 19 | — | |
| 2024 | 39 | +105.3% | |
| 2025 | 28 | -28.2% |
* Well below Kenneth 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 5 building fires Kenneth City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 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 | 4 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Closet | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 26.1% |
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 Kenneth City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 9 | 39.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 4.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kenneth City departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $90,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kenneth City sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
19 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 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 29,641 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Natural | 3,000 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 2,500 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,275 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 2,000 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,939 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,500 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 1,300 | 39.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 1,287 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,100 | 47.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 1,000 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 990 | 47.5 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 Kenneth 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.