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 Webster responded to 112 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
481 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 16 | — | |
| 2022 | 120 | — | |
| 2023 | 132 | +10.0% | |
| 2024 | 101 | -23.5% | |
| 2025 | 112 | +10.9% |
* Well below Webster'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 7 building fires Webster departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 229 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 | 56 | 24.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 39 | 17.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 12.7% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 26 | 11.4% | |
| 5 | Other | 15 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 12 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 30 | 13.1% |
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 Webster mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 87 | 38.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 23 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 20 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 12 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 11 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 9 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 9 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 8 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 7 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 37 | 16.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Webster departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Webster sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 82,350 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10,119 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,022 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 5,420 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 4,014 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,407 | 25.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 3,149 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,111 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 2,551 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2,507 | 19.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 2,500 | 49.4 mi |
Top 4 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 Webster. 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.