EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct
General Police / Security Involved
Procedure
On the ground in ZZZ1; seconds before needing to shut the main cabin door for an on time departure; a passenger was reluctant to gate check their oversized bag. Flight Attendant (FA) retrieves the bag and rampers put it in the forward cargo. Once on the ground in ZZZ2 and parked at the gate; a ramper opens the forward cargo compartment and discovers this bag is smoking. First Officer (FO) went outside to walk around and the lead supervisor informs him of the smoking bag and tells him that he removed the bag from the aircraft. The lead supervisor placed the bag 15 feet away from the airplane on the ground. FO immediately came up the jet bridge and notified me of the smoking bag. I told him to call the fire department and police; he said the lead supervisor has already notified operations and they are on the way. Then I evacuated the aircraft and the jet bridge. I also shut down the airplane. Once in the terminal; the owners of the bag informed me in front of several other people that the bag contains five lithium batteries and film equipment including monitors. The bag catches on fire; and four to five brave rampers try to put the fire out. The flames snuff out for a few minutes and start burning again. It caught on fire three times before the fire department showed up. Which I estimate was at least 30 minutes.  Then multiple fire departments show up including one from outside the airport. They use the proper extinguisher; but by this time not much is left of the bag and it had burned to the ground. Then I went down to the scene to speak with the fire departments; airport security; operations manager and eventually the Police Department. I tried to figure out where the breakdown of communication was because the response time was unacceptable. I also was concerned if those passengers were continuing on to another flight and if they had other bags with lithium batteries that needed to be confiscated. That's why I had the police involved; but the passengers were gone from the gate when [police] showed up; which was approximately 45 minutes and unacceptable. I also called regional chief.Preventative Actions: I am concerned as to why TSA in ZZZ1 did not find the 5 lithium batteries? That error put all our lives at risk. Airport security and the ZZZ2 Police Department decided to not involve TSA immediately but I think they absolutely should have been involved and should be held responsible. I was told by the passengers who owned the bag that they have been traveling with this same bag and film equipment for 7 years. One passenger/owner of the bag claimed to be an engineer and I assume must know the danger of lithium batteries packed together. If that is true; then that is very alarming and I think they should be fined. They knowingly put all our lives at risk by intentionally packing several lithium batteries together. We were very lucky that [it] is a short flight; if the flight was another 15 minutes long; we would have been on fire in flight possibly with smoke and fumes in the cabin and flight deck. I am very glad I said my prayers that morning. I am grateful my crew and the ground crew worked great as a team. The lead supervisor should be specifically recognized for saving the aircraft from fire damage and a potential big disaster considering the fire department at a busy international airport was missing in action.
While bags were being offloaded at the destination airport ramp personnel noticed smoke emanating from a bag. The bag; which contained 5 Lithium batteries and other electronic devices; subsequently caught fire on the ramp and was successfully extinguished after several attempts. The Captain expressed his concern over not discovering batteries during TSA screening and also what he felt were slow reaction times by both fire and police responders.