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 Winter Park responded to 166 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Winter Park's departments reported 166 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 310 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,552 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $10.3M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 316 | — | |
| 2022 | 392 | +24.1% | |
| 2023 | 359 | -8.4% | |
| 2024 | 319 | -11.1% | |
| 2025* | 166 | — |
* Well below Winter Park'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 16 building fires Winter Park departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 463 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 69 | 14.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 64 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 40 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 36 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 31 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 29 | 6.3% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 28 | 6.0% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 15 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Other | 12 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 129 | 27.9% |
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 Winter Park mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 138 | 29.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 66 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 57 | 12.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 38 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 17 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 17 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 16 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 16 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 15 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 14 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 69 | 14.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Winter Park departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 85% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $45,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Winter Park sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 211,474 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Natural | 39,000 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,000 | 24.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 13,600 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 10,560 | 39.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 10,240 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10,119 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,022 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 9,000 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 9.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 7,302 | 25.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 7,000 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,575 | 47.9 mi |
Top 6 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 Winter Park. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Winter Park.
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.