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 Tamarac responded to 122 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
733 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 73 | — | |
| 2022 | 194 | — | |
| 2023 | 188 | -3.1% | |
| 2024 | 156 | -17.0% | |
| 2025 | 122 | -21.8% |
* Well below Tamarac'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 26 building fires Tamarac departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 198 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 55 | 27.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 23 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 15 | 7.6% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 9 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 59 | 29.8% |
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 Tamarac mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 67 | 33.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 25 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 19 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 19 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 18 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 4 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 21 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Tamarac departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $167,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $45,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Tamarac sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 950,037 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 158,000 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 68,295 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 63,599 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 62,404 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 57,000 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 49,500 | 20.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 42,000 | 24.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 41,000 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39,465 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 39,000 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 29,937 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 29,250 | 35.6 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 Tamarac. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Tamarac.
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.