Chapter 7

Fire

7.1 Smoke and fumes

The presence of smoke or fumes may or may not generate ecam
warnings. If a smoke related ecam warning occurs, run the ecam
before turning to the qrh.1
The smoke/fumes/avncs smoke qrh procedure should be
applied when:

• An avionics smoke ecam requests it and the flight crew

can confirm the presence of smoke, either visually or by smell.
If unconfirmed it should be treated as spurious.

• Smoke and/or fumes are detected either via any other ecam
or directly by the crew and the avionics, air conditioning or
cabin equipment are suspected as the source.

• Orange peel or pine needle smells are detected in the flight

1
For the avionics smoke ecam, the fctm gives you the option of skipping
the ecam and referring directly to the qrh, since the qrh contains all of the
relevant actions. However, treating this ecam as “special” just complicates
matters, since you will then have to remember which one was “special”.

59
60 CHAPTER 7. FIRE

deck. These are due to rain repellent leaks; the former is

toxic, the latter non-toxic.
What constitutes “smoke” is not especially ambiguous; whether
a “smell” constitutes “fumes” is much more so. Training depart-
ment guidance is that if a “smell” is detected in the cabin and it is
having no physiological effects, no immediate action is required. If
there are physiological effects, treat the smell as fumes and action
the procedure.
The first priority is to protect yourself, so get an oxygen mask
on. The mask must be set to 100% oxygen to exclude fumes; at
minimum dispatch oxygen levels this will provide as little as 15
minutes of protection. Pushing the “Emergency pressure selector”
knob will provide a few seconds of overpressure, which can be used
to clear any smoke trapped in the mask as it was donned.
The qrh smoke/fumes/avncs smoke checklist attempts to
isolate the source of the smoke. It is possible that it may become
impossible to carry out this checklist due to smoke density. In
this case, interrupt the checklist and carry out the smoke removal
drill (see Section 7.2). It is also possible that the situation may
deteriorate to a level that an immediate forced landing becomes
the preferable option. In general, unless the source of the smoke is
obvious and extinguishable, a diversion should be initiated imme-
diately. The smoke removal drill is most effective and adaptable at
lower levels, so a descent to 10,000ft or msa is also a priority.
Likely sources of smoke are the avionics and the galleys. Smoke
from these sources can be contained with simple and reversible
actions which can be initiated immediately: put the avionics ven-
tilation into smoke removal mode by selecting both blower and
extract fans to ovrd and turn off the galleys. Also turn off the
cabin fans to avoid distributing the smoke to other parts of the
aircraft.
Where the source is immediately obvious, accessible and ex-
tinguishable, isolate the faulty equipment. Otherwise the qrh
7.1. SMOKE AND FUMES 61

provides separate drills for suspected air conditioning smoke, sus-

pected cabin equipment smoke or suspected avionics/electrical
smoke. In addition the avionics/electrical smoke drill includes
undetermined and continuing smoke sources.
Suspect air conditioning smoke if it initially comes out of the
ventilation outlets. Several ecam warnings are also likely to occur
as sensors detect the smoke in other areas. The displayed ecam
procedures must be applied. Following an engine or apu failure,
smoke may initially enter the air conditioning system but should
dissipate quickly once the failure is contained. The air conditioning
drill starts by turning the apu bleed off in case this is the source.
The packs are then turned off one at a time to determine if the
source of the smoke is a pack.
The cabin equipment smoke drill involves selecting the com-
mercial button off and searching for faulty cabin equipment.
Suspect avionics smoke if the only triggered ecam is avionics
smoke. If an item of electrical equipment fails immediately prior
to the appearance of the smoke, that equipment should be sus-
pected as the source. The avionics/electrical drill (which includes
the undetermined source drill) reduces the amount of electrically
powered equipment to a minimum by adopting a slightly modified
emergency electrical configuration.2 The resulting ecam may 3 con-
tain instructions to reset the generators; these instructions should
be disregarded, although the rest of the ecam procedure must
be actioned. The intention is to restore power 3 minutes before
landing or at 2000ft aal. Since you will not be able to restore the
two irs that were depowered, the landing will be in Direct Law

2
The emer elec gen 1 line button rather than the gen 1 button is used
to disconnect generator 1 which disconnects generator 1 from the electrical
system but allows it to directly supply one fuel pump in each wing tank.
3
Which ecam procedure is displayed is dependent on whether an avionics
smoke ecam has been triggered prior to the adoption of emergency electrical
configuration.
62 CHAPTER 7. FIRE

and hence conf 3.4 This is not mentioned in qrh, and is only
mentioned on the ecam once gear is extended.
[ avionics smoke, qrh [Link], fcom [Link] ]

7.2 Smoke/fumes removal

Smoke removal procedures initially use the pressurisation system to
draw smoke and fumes overboard by increasing the cabin altitude.
If there are no fuel vapours present, the packs are used to drive
the smoke overboard. Otherwise it is driven overboard by residual
pressure.
The final target configuration is packs off, outflow valve fully
open and ram air on. As this depressurises the aircraft, it can only
be achieved at lower levels (preferably fl100). If in emergency
configuration, turning the apu master switch on connects the
batteries for a maximum of 3 minutes and allows manual control of
the dc powered outflow valve motor. Once at a suitable level and
below 200kt, as a last resort pm’s cockpit window can be opened.
[ qrh [Link], fcom [Link] ]

7.3 Engine fire

The basic sequence is to bring the thrust lever of the affected
engine to idle, turn off its engine master, push its fire button,
wait 10 seconds then deploy its first fire bottle. If the fire is
not extinguished after 30 seconds, indicated by the fire button
remaining lit, deploy the second bottle.
This sequence is modified on the ground in that both fire
bottles are fired immediately. Cross confirmation is not required
4
qrh elec elec emer config sys remaining indicates that by selecting
the att hdg selector to capt 3 it may be possible to retain ir3 and hence
have sufficient equipment for a Cat 3 Single landing once power is restored.
This has not yet been confirmed by Airbus.
7.4. LITHIUM BATTERY FIRE 63

for master switches or fire buttons when operated on the ground.

The emergency evacuation procedure is then applied if required
(see Section 2.4).
[ eng 1(2) fire, fcom [Link] ]

7.4 Lithium Battery Fire

If there are flames, they should be attacked with a halon extin-
guisher. This will necessitate pf donning a crew oxygen mask and
pm donning the smoke hood.
If there are no flames, or once the flames have been extinguished,
the cabin crew should remove the device from the cockpit and store
it in a lined container filled with water. If the device cannot be
removed, water or non-alcoholic liquid should be poured on the
device, and it should be continuously monitored for re-ignition.
Note that these procedures assume that you are dealing with
lithium ion batteries (i.e. rechargeable batteries found in laptops,
tablets, phones etc.) where the amount of water reactive lithium
metal is actually fairly low. Once the flames have been knocked
down, the focus is on cooling to prevent thermal runaway in ad-
jacent cells. Counter-intuitively, it is vital that ice is not used
as this acts as a thermal insulator and will likely cause adjacent
cells to explode. For the same reason, smothering with anything
that might thermally insulate the battery pack (e.g. a fire bag) is
probably a bad idea.
If smoke becomes the biggest threat, see Section 7.2. If the
situation becomes unmanageable, consider an immediate landing.
[ qrh [Link], fcom [Link], faa videos (youtube) ]