B757 flight crew climbing through FL240 is informed by a flight attendant of strong electrical fumes...

Narrative:

Passing 24;000 [feet] on climb out the flight attendant in the rear of the aircraft called to say there was a very strong odor of an electrical fire near the rear door of the aircraft. We coordinated with the flight attendants to allow the captain to go back and check and when he did he called the cockpit on the interphone and said we needed to get on the ground as quickly as possible. I declared an emergency with ATC and asked for an immediate clearance to return. When the captain returned to the cockpit I briefed him on our clearance and then we accomplished the 'smoke/fire/ fumes' checklist in the QRH. We continued our descent and return but observed that ZZZ was immediately in front of us. Since fars and good judgment require us to 'land at the nearest suitable airport' we decided to land at ZZZ instead of the departure airport. We coordinated this with ATC and landed. Due to time constraints an overweight landing checklist was not accomplished. After landing we taxied clear of the runway and when emergency vehicles arrived they said they observed a fire in the right side brakes and asked that we shut down the engines in order to allow them to extinguish the fire. We did and they reported a short time later that the fire was out. We coordinated with operations; ATC; and the emergency responders to get the passengers off the aircraft thru the air stairs that had been brought to the rear of the aircraft. After all passengers had been removed we shut the aircraft down and completed the terminating check list.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 flight crew climbing through FL240 is informed by a Flight Attendant of strong electrical fumes in the aft galley. After QRH procedures are complied with the crew elects to divert to the closest suitable airport.

Narrative: Passing 24;000 [feet] on climb out the flight attendant in the rear of the aircraft called to say there was a very strong odor of an electrical fire near the rear door of the aircraft. We coordinated with the flight attendants to allow the Captain to go back and check and when he did he called the cockpit on the interphone and said we needed to get on the ground as quickly as possible. I declared an emergency with ATC and asked for an immediate clearance to return. When the Captain returned to the cockpit I briefed him on our clearance and then we accomplished the 'smoke/fire/ fumes' checklist in the QRH. We continued our descent and return but observed that ZZZ was immediately in front of us. Since FARs and good judgment require us to 'land at the nearest suitable airport' we decided to land at ZZZ instead of the departure airport. We coordinated this with ATC and landed. Due to time constraints an overweight landing checklist was not accomplished. After landing we taxied clear of the runway and when emergency vehicles arrived they said they observed a fire in the right side brakes and asked that we shut down the engines in order to allow them to extinguish the fire. We did and they reported a short time later that the fire was out. We coordinated with operations; ATC; and the emergency responders to get the passengers off the aircraft thru the air stairs that had been brought to the rear of the aircraft. After all passengers had been removed we shut the aircraft down and completed the terminating check list.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1235702
Time
Date	201501
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 18000 Flight Crew Type 400
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 164 Flight Crew Total 6356 Flight Crew Type 6356
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

B757 flight crew climbing through FL240 is informed by a flight attendant of strong electrical fumes in the aft galley. After QRH procedures are complied with the crew elects to divert to the closest suitable airport.