B777-200
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft
After gate arrival and after the passengers had deplaned; and after we had established external electrical power; and the APU was off; a ramp agent informed me that he had observed smoke coming from the back of the plane indicating the possibility of an APU fire. He also informed me that they had called the airport fire personnel; after the fire personnel arrived the fire marshal informed me that they sensed some heat and asked if I could fire the APU fire bottles which I complied with; they then informed me that the heat was dissipating. The taxi in and shutdown process was normal with the exception that when I selected secondary power - the only one available at the time - there was a big power shift/surge that seem abnormal at the time; after this the primary power was also established and the APU was turned off; there was never any indication of anything abnormal in the flight deck as the APU appeared to have completed the shutdown process. Maybe instruct ground personnel to always provide primary external power on the 777 first; not sure this had an effect on the incident; it just seem logical.
A B777-200 pilot reported firing the APU fire bottles when smoke was observed near the APU after gate arrival.