A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Type 1212
Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Electronic Device; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Physical Injury / Incapacitation
Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors
During taxi in to the gate; I answered a cabin call from [the lead flight attendant]. He informed me that there was a fire in the cabin. I told the captain immediately after. The captain stopped the airplane quickly and he set the brake. There was ramp construction in front and to the right of the aircraft that would be blocking a possible evacuation of the aircraft (heavy equipment; personnel; etc.). The captain asked me to call ground and inform them we have a fire and to roll the emergency equipment. I informed ground that we had a fire in the cabin; that we had stopped the aircraft; to roll the emergency equipment; and to standby for a possible evacuation of the aircraft. The captain asked me to pull up the evacuation checklist in the QRH; which I did in Content Locker on my iPad. [The flight attendant] called us back and told us the other flight attendants were fighting the fire and that a laptop was having a runaway battery fire. We told him that we had emergency equipment on the way to the aircraft and to let us know if we needed to evacuate the aircraft. I had started the APU upon landing; and it was available for power and air. The captain asked me to shut down the engines in case we needed to run the evacuation checklist. I shut down both engines and we remained on APU power. I relayed souls on board and fuel on board to ATC when they asked. [The flight attendant] called back and said that the fire was out; but that one or possibly both of the aft flight attendants had sustained injuries. I believe the captain asked if the situation was under control and if we could taxi to the gate. There were still people up in the aisle of the aircraft. While the flight attendants got everyone re-seated; we started up the number one engine. [The flight attendant] called back and said everyone was seated and we advised ground that we could taxi to the gate and that we would need medical assistance as soon as we parked at the gate. As we started to taxi in; I advised company on the ops frequency what happened and that we would be requiring medical assistance for our flight attendants and possibly some passengers. The captain made a PA to advise everyone to remain seated and that emergency personnel would be entering the cabin. We taxied into the gate uneventfully and parked the aircraft. We completed the parking checklist; and I opened the flight deck door to render any assistance in the cabin (by this time the EMT's and firefighters had already entered the cabin and were rendering assistance). Once the item that had caught fire was removed; and the flight attendants were given aid; we had the passengers deplane the aircraft normally. I called the Duty Manager to inform them what had happened and the captain coordinated with Maintenance as well our Chief Pilot.
We landed normal and taxiing in when a passenger got up. I reminded them they all had to be seated and that is when they yelled fire! This is when I noticed smoke in the cabin; I immediately called the flight deck to tell them we had a cabin fire and to stop the plane.I grabbed an H2O extinguisher and proceeded to fight the fire. My number 2 Flight Attendant had already extinguished the suspect item. Went back to phone to call flight deck to tell them it was out and that we had 2 hurt flight attendants and a hurt passenger from the immediate stop. #2 flight attendant had put water and then ice to cool and put out the fire. We discovered that they were lithium batteries!How did these items get through security and why was he carrying them as a carry on?This is going to become more of a threat the more and more electronic devices that we have or allow on board the planes.
A319 First Officer and a Flight Attendant reported a cabin fire from a passenger battery thermal runaway during taxi-in.