EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Aircraft
Aircraft pushed from the gate. Normal start on engine two. After tow bar and tug disconnect with there was waive off; Captain commanded engine start on number one. After a few seconds; I noticed I was not getting number 2 rotation. After verifying the pneumatic valves were set up correctly; I commented to the Captain I was not getting rotation and asked him to verify pneumatic position. He confirmed everything was configured correctly. Shortly after this took place another aircraft over Ground Frequency 'The ERJ that just pushed has sparks and flames coming from its left engine. Shut 'em down boys.' ATC then confirmed that was our aircraft; followed by informing us. At this point the Captain called for the emergency evacuation check list and called for the fire trucks to be rolled over Ground frequency. The QRH was run. The fire department arrived shortly and confirmed there was no indication of fire. Given we had no indication of fire on the flight deck either; and had blown the bottle; the Captain and I discussed we felt it was appropriate to wait for stairs to be able to make a safe egress out the galley door instead of having passengers risk injury jumping down to the tarmac. After the evacuation was complete; the batteries were turned off and the QRH was completed. We then exited the aircraft.
EMB-145 First Officer reported that; number one engine failed to start with sparks and flames visible; causing flight crew to abort the engine start and deplane.