B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Distraction; Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness
Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Electronic Device; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Maintenance Action
Company Policy; Human Factors
During taxi to the arrival gate in ZZZZ; an E-cigarette battery in a passenger's small carry-on bag overheated causing the combustion of the bags contents. The smoldering bag and burning battery were quickly neutralized using the onboard fire extinguisher. The Flight Attendant involved deserves recognition and commendation for her quick situational assessment and corrective action. No personal injuries or schedule disruptions occurred during this event. This was the text describing this incident in the required report and I will attempt to describe it more fully here. After a normal flight; we were taxing in to our new scheduled gate when we heard 8 or 9 chimes from the cabin and was informed by the #1 FA 'There's a fire.' I quickly ask several questions and got 'Inside the airplane; the last several rows in back; there are flames; that's all I know I'll call you right back.' I stopped the jet a couple of airplane lengths from the terminal in case we had to evacuate and got more information on what was happening. A very short time later I was informed about the E-cigarette fire; that the fire was extinguished but that there was some smoke left over in the back few rows. I elected to continue to the gate and deplane the passengers in quick but orderly fashion. No one knew how the E-cigarette caught on fire. The passenger had placed it inside a paper bag with some napkins and then inside his backpack under the seat in front of him. In the process of putting out the fire in the backpack; the [paper] bag was removed and burned up (all paper products) leaving the battery in flames on the aircraft carpet. It took several attempts with the fire extinguisher to stop the battery fire. The descriptions of the battery on fire reminded witnesses of a lit ground firework that throws off sparks and spins around; and sounded to me very similar to the laptop battery fire videos I have seen. The passenger stated that he had not used the E-cigarette in flight and had it 'turned off.' From the nervous demeanor of the young passenger I do not consider his statement completely reliable. I wrote up in the logbook the possible damage for maintenance inspection and the use of the fire extinguisher for replacement.I agree that actually using E-cigarettes is a disruptive annoyance to people nearby; especially people trapped in an airplane together. I am unfamiliar with their power source; however; and this quickly extinguished incident might have been very different if the battery was buried deeply in a bag stowed in the overhead bin or in the cargo compartments. Can you turn the battery off/disconnect or is it always ready and charged up for the user to draw upon? Does this 'always on' state cause the battery to overheat or was it damaged somehow to self-destruct in such a way? Should these devices be banned on airplanes? This battery was small but burned long enough and hot enough to catch anything nearby on fire. If it were up to me I would ban the batteries and allow the empty E-cigarette device.
A pilot reported that while taxiing to the gate he was notified by a Flight Attendant of a fire in the cabin. The aircraft was stopped on the taxiway and the source of the fire was identified as an E-cigarette device. The fire was quickly extinguished and the aircraft proceeded to the gate where the passengers disembarked in an orderly manner.