Regional Jet 900 (CRJ900)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Evacuated; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Environment - Non Weather Related
After passengers boarded our flight I was giving my CA PA. I hung up the FWD FA phone and talked with the ground crew before closing the main cabin door; then a triple chime went off in the flight deck. I looked to see it was the FWD LAV SMOKE; both the forward FA and I looked at each other and opened the LAV. We saw no smoke but noticed an odor. After that we came out and saw nothing in the cabin. A passenger sitting [near front of cabin] said there was a fire. Looking down the aisle I saw nothing.She then told me 'No; outside.' I looked out the aircraft's right windows to see the right wing covered in brown smoke. I left the aircraft to get a look at what it was; at the same time the ground crew had hooked up the Cart to a tug and disconnected it from aircraft taking it to the middle of [the] taxiway. I came back into the aircraft and informed the passengers what it was and that the cart had been removed from the aircraft. I asked them to remain in their seats so I could evaluate the situation.I looked back outside again and the ramp crew had started to put out the fire; but were running out of agent. I came back in and had my FO call Ramp Operations for CFR for additional support. After the situation calmed down some the odor and a light smoke were present in the cabin and flight deck. I then made the decision to deplane the passengers and have the aircraft inspected by maintenance and de-fumed. Some passenger were very upset by this and I apologized for the disruption. Shortly after Maintenance took the aircraft out of service and started blowing the smoke out. About 15 minutes after we then did a plane and crew swap.
CRJ-900 Captain reported ordering evacuation of the aircraft due to a ground equipment fire.