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 Orlando responded to 1,576 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.1M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Orlando's departments reported 1,576 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 3,473 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
17,367 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $63.5M cumulative property loss. 20 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,474 | — | |
| 2022 | 3,820 | +10.0% | |
| 2023 | 3,319 | -13.1% | |
| 2024 | 5,178 | +56.0% | |
| 2025* | 1,576 | — |
* Well below Orlando'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 235 building fires Orlando departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8,617 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1,281 | 14.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 999 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 966 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 946 | 11.0% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 696 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 638 | 7.4% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 498 | 5.8% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 360 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 241 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Other | 194 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,798 | 20.9% |
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 Orlando mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3,510 | 40.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 709 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 692 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 527 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 379 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 335 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Match | 317 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 314 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 241 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 235 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1,358 | 15.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Orlando departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,120,650 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $310,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Orlando sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
140 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 | 5 | |
| 20-29 | 27 | |
| 30-39 | 35 | |
| 40-49 | 20 | |
| 50-59 | 19 | |
| 60-69 | 16 | |
| 70-79 | 8 | |
| 80+ | 8 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 186,339 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,000 | 28.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 13,600 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 13,000 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 12,564 | 47.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 10,560 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 10,240 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10,119 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 9,000 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 6.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 7,302 | 24.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 7,000 | 37.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 6,420 | 38.8 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 Orlando. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Orlando.
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.