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 Wildwood responded to 145 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $495K 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 42% of all calls.
May peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
836 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 100 | — | |
| 2022 | 222 | — | |
| 2023 | 199 | -10.4% | |
| 2024 | 170 | -14.6% | |
| 2025 | 145 | -14.7% |
* Well below Wildwood'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 Wildwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 329 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 | 63 | 19.1% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 56 | 17.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 39 | 11.9% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 38 | 11.6% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 17 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 13 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Other | 10 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 62 | 18.8% |
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 Wildwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 130 | 39.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 29 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 21 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 18 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 13 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 10 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 57 | 17.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wildwood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $495,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $58,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wildwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 97,770 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Natural | 10,560 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10,119 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,022 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 5,420 | 41.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 4,200 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 4,014 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,407 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 3,175 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 3,149 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,111 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 2,965 | 42.4 mi |
Top 9 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 Wildwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wildwood.
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.