Two Lithium-Ion Battery Fires in Three Weeks Destroy Homes in Pasco County, Florida
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In 2025, fire departments serving Lehigh Acres responded to 285 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Lehigh Acres's departments reported 285 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 483 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,416 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $8.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 487 | — | |
| 2022 | 535 | +9.9% | |
| 2023 | 573 | +7.1% | |
| 2024 | 536 | -6.5% | |
| 2025* | 285 | — |
* Well below Lehigh Acres'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 15 building fires Lehigh Acres departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,176 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 | Wildland, woods | 308 | 26.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 191 | 16.2% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 140 | 11.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 99 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 57 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 54 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 41 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 40 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 32 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 30 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 184 | 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 Lehigh Acres mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 275 | 23.4% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 151 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 133 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 117 | 9.9% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 70 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 69 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 56 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 55 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 40 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 39 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 171 | 14.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lehigh Acres departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 56% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $18,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $13,000 | Water vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lehigh Acres sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
25 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 469,603 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Natural | 63,599 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 43,561 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 38,100 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 38,000 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 29,112 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | 24,315 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 22,488 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 21,963 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 20,300 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 18,027 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 17,000 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 16,500 | 36.5 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 Lehigh Acres. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lehigh Acres.
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.