Narrative:

While climbing through FL280 the fire baggage compartment light illuminated with the corresponding horn. Following the emergency checklist the first officer went to the baggage compartment to check for fire. He noted a faint smell of smoke and a higher than normal temperature. He returned to the cockpit where we all agreed as a crew to land as soon as possible but in a safe controlled manner not as an emergency aircraft with the detection system not disarmed as per the checklist. We requested a diversion to ZZZ which was 10 km away and then began a non-emergency descent. When the power levers were pulled to idle and descending through 12000 MSL the fire light extinguished and remained off throughout the remainder of the flight and ground operations. After landing I stopped the aircraft after exiting the runway and personally went back to determine if we could taxi or needed to evacuate the aircraft due to fire or smoke. I found a faint white (haze) smoke hovering near the detector through the baggage light but no other signs of fire or colored smoke. We taxied to the FBO and the passengers deplaned. The emergency checklist leads a person to believe that with no fire the problem is with the detector. However; the detector is not heat based but a smoke based detection system. To disable the system by pulling the circuit breaker and continuing the flight is a possible major error when you have a bleed leak entering the pressurization system or fire /smoke in the forward service compartment. This compartment is where all of the bleeds enter the acm and are plumbed into the cabin and baggage compartment ducting.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: F2TH Captain experiences a baggage compartment fire warning climbing through FL280. The First Officer is sent back to investigate and can find no fire but there is some faint smoke and temperatures seem to be elevated. The Baggage Fire Checklist directs the crew to disable the baggage fire warning if there is no actual fire present and continue. The crew elects not to do this and diverts in a non emergency fashion.

Narrative: While climbing through FL280 the Fire Baggage Compartment light illuminated with the corresponding horn. Following the Emergency Checklist the First Officer went to the baggage compartment to check for fire. He noted a faint smell of smoke and a higher than normal temperature. He returned to the cockpit where we all agreed as a crew to land as soon as possible but in a safe controlled manner not as an emergency aircraft with the detection system not disarmed as per the checklist. We requested a diversion to ZZZ which was 10 km away and then began a non-emergency descent. When the power levers were pulled to idle and descending through 12000 MSL the fire light extinguished and remained off throughout the remainder of the flight and ground operations. After landing I stopped the aircraft after exiting the runway and personally went back to determine if we could taxi or needed to evacuate the aircraft due to fire or smoke. I found a faint white (haze) smoke hovering near the detector through the baggage light but no other signs of fire or colored smoke. We taxied to the FBO and the passengers deplaned. The Emergency Checklist leads a person to believe that with no fire the problem is with the detector. However; the detector is not heat based but a smoke based detection system. To disable the system by pulling the circuit breaker and continuing the flight is a possible major error when you have a bleed leak entering the pressurization system or fire /smoke in the forward service compartment. This compartment is where all of the bleeds enter the ACM and are plumbed into the cabin and baggage compartment ducting.

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.