Narrative:

Flight completed and parked at gate with seatbelt sign off and cockpit door unlocked. As cockpit crew was about to start parking checklist I noticed a bright orange flash over my left shoulder. I turned to see the jet bridge bathed in orange flickering light for at least a few seconds. This was followed by a cloud of black smoke which obscured vision through the back half of the side window. I also immediately noticed one ramper who was closer to the nose; frozen with a look of panic and his arms moving about. I turned to the first officer and indicated that we had a fire somewhere under/forward of the flight deck. I asked if he saw any smoke on his side. As the jet bridge was not attached and there was no agent there to move it; I decided it was safest to evacuate the aircraft. The cockpit door was open and I turned to flight attendant-a and said; 'on fire; evacuate now.' I told the first officer to go back and assist. I made a PA to initiate evacuation; however during the stress of the moment I believe I made the announcement on a com radio before realizing I could not hear myself on the PA. I fixed the error and made the PA again; 'this is the captain; evacuate; evacuate now.' I noticed an acid-type odor emanating from the center instrument panel area. I then had to select radio page on mcdu; enter operations freq; and announced we were evacuating; on fire; and needed assistance. It was about this time the first officer came back into the flight deck and said something about the 1R door malfunctioning and all the passengers having their carry on luggage hindering evacuation. We made additional PA's to the effect of 'leave everything and go to the exit.' at this time I could see numerous ramp personal directing passengers promptly up the jet bridge stairs and directed the first officer to stay aboard and help. A very short time later; possibly under a minute; I was working through qrc actions when flight attendant-a advised that all passengers were off. I asked her to double-check the cabin; get her jacket and told her I'll meet her upstairs. By this time the aircraft was powered down and the first officer and I were about to leave when we confirmed with the numerous ground personnel that there was no visible fire. I walked through the cabin to confirm empty and then we elected to stay aboard to assist in getting the jet-way attached. We contacted dispatch first; whom notified operations; and called the duty manager immediately thereafter. Maintenance was there within minutes and assisted verbally in detaching the 1L slide; the jet-bridge was attached and crash fire rescue equipment personnel arrived shortly thereafter. While attaching the jet-bridge I yelled across about the passengers and was assured they were ok in the terminal boarding lounge with no injuries reported. Company personnel took charge of the passengers and the flight crew stayed with the maintenance & crash fire rescue equipment personnel. Soon thereafter I made an entry in the aircraft's logbook and was then instructed to stay off the aircraft by crash fire rescue equipment personnel. I was questioned by fire department officers whom were trying to ascertain if the fire could still be burning inside the nose somewhere. At this point we gathered our belongings and entered the terminal. We made verbal contact with the assistant chief pilot whom assisted our crew for the drug tests.the ground crew plugged in the gpu while the system was on MEL. We could have re-confirmed with ops in-range that the system was inop and not to plug in power. Evacuation- seatbelt sign was off thus: passengers were standing up with their luggage blocking access to the isle. Passengers were probably talking on phones or otherwise distracted and not listening to initial evacuation commands. The carry-on luggage was a large distraction and there was a pile of luggage in the forward cabin. 1R door malfunctioned and had to be forced open distracting the flight attendant-a from her duties.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-175 flight crew reports a bright orange flash as the ground crew attempts to connect ground power to the aircraft. The ground power service panel had been placarded as inoperative and MEL'd. Since the jetway is not up to the aircraft and the gate agent is not in sight; the Captain orders an evacuation which is successfully accomplished without injuries.

Narrative: Flight completed and parked at gate with seatbelt sign off and cockpit door unlocked. As cockpit crew was about to start Parking Checklist I noticed a bright orange flash over my left shoulder. I turned to see the jet bridge bathed in orange flickering light for at least a few seconds. This was followed by a cloud of black smoke which obscured vision through the back half of the side window. I also immediately noticed one ramper who was closer to the nose; frozen with a look of panic and his arms moving about. I turned to the First Officer and indicated that we had a fire somewhere under/forward of the flight deck. I asked if he saw any smoke on his side. As the jet bridge was not attached and there was no agent there to move it; I decided it was safest to evacuate the aircraft. The cockpit door was open and I turned to Flight Attendant-A and said; 'On fire; evacuate now.' I told the First Officer to go back and assist. I made a PA to initiate evacuation; however during the stress of the moment I believe I made the announcement on a com radio before realizing I could not hear myself on the PA. I fixed the error and made the PA again; 'This is the Captain; evacuate; evacuate NOW.' I noticed an acid-type odor emanating from the center instrument panel area. I then had to select radio page on MCDU; enter OPS freq; and announced we were evacuating; on fire; and needed assistance. It was about this time the First Officer came back into the flight deck and said something about the 1R door malfunctioning and all the passengers having their carry on luggage hindering evacuation. We made additional PA's to the effect of 'leave everything and go to the exit.' At this time I could see numerous ramp personal directing passengers promptly up the jet bridge stairs and directed the First Officer to stay aboard and help. A very short time later; possibly under a minute; I was working through QRC actions when Flight Attendant-A advised that all passengers were off. I asked her to double-check the cabin; get her jacket and told her I'll meet her upstairs. By this time the aircraft was powered down and the First Officer and I were about to leave when we confirmed with the numerous ground personnel that there was no visible fire. I walked through the cabin to confirm empty and then we elected to stay aboard to assist in getting the jet-way attached. We contacted Dispatch first; whom notified Operations; and called the Duty Manager immediately thereafter. Maintenance was there within minutes and assisted verbally in detaching the 1L slide; the jet-bridge was attached and CFR personnel arrived shortly thereafter. While attaching the jet-bridge I yelled across about the passengers and was assured they were ok in the terminal boarding lounge with no injuries reported. Company personnel took charge of the passengers and the flight crew stayed with the Maintenance & CFR personnel. Soon thereafter I made an entry in the aircraft's logbook and was then instructed to stay off the aircraft by CFR personnel. I was questioned by Fire Department officers whom were trying to ascertain if the fire could still be burning inside the nose somewhere. At this point we gathered our belongings and entered the terminal. We made verbal contact with the Assistant Chief Pilot whom assisted our crew for the drug tests.The ground crew plugged in the GPU while the system was on MEL. We could have re-confirmed with Ops in-range that the system was inop and not to plug in power. Evacuation- Seatbelt sign was off thus: Passengers were standing up with their luggage blocking access to the isle. Passengers were probably talking on phones or otherwise distracted and not listening to initial evacuation commands. The carry-on luggage was a large distraction and there was a pile of luggage in the forward cabin. 1R door malfunctioned and had to be forced open distracting the Flight Attendant-A from her duties.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.