Narrative:

I was running the radios from the right seat for the night. The first move of the day was changed due to another plane going out of service for a fuel leak. We were moved to the aircraft that had the fuel leak. While performing our checklist on the aircraft; when the fuel pumps were turned on; we were alerted to fuel coming out of the right wing. We shut the pumps off and alerted the ramp and operations. After a two and a half hour troubleshooting by the technical crew chief; we taxied the airplane to the hangar on the left engine only while having to monitor the fuel as operations followed us for safety. It was a stressful situation. Our next plane to taxi was with an inoperative APU. We did our checklist; and an air start of the left engine at the gate. We got clearance to spot one and asked ground for clearance to do a cross bleed start. Were cleared to taxiway; ground then gave us permission to start our cross bleed. The left seat mechanic started the cross bleed start in manual mode. During the start; I heard another aircraft tell the tower 'the plane in front of us has a right engine fire' the tower then called us and said our right engine was on fire. I told left seat mechanic the right engine was on fire and he shut the engine down. A few seconds later; the aircraft that was behind us said the fire was out. Then the same plane behind us came back on and said the fire was back burning. We feared for our safety and the safety of the aircraft at that time and decided to start the A320 emergency procedures briefing guide. We followed the procedure; discharged number 1; and number 2 bottles. I then asked the tower if the fire was out. They said they couldn't verify the fire was out. I then saw personnel on the ground and I yelled out the window if the fire was out and they said yes.not sure why the event occurred. We were relying on the pilot's warning and ground control's warning about the right engine fire because we were on an active taxiway. If not for an aircraft being right behind us the fire would have likely been much worse. If we had a ground crew we would have known immediately; we had an engine fire. I don't have a suggestion as to how to avoid a recurrence of this event because I am not sure why it happened.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 maintenance crew reported that when they attempted a cross-bleed start; the right engine caught on fire.

Narrative: I was running the radios from the right seat for the night. The first move of the day was changed due to another plane going out of service for a fuel leak. We were moved to the Aircraft that had the fuel leak. While performing our checklist on the Aircraft; when the fuel pumps were turned on; we were alerted to fuel coming out of the right wing. We shut the pumps off and alerted the ramp and operations. After a two and a half hour troubleshooting by the technical Crew chief; we taxied the Airplane to the hangar on the left engine only while having to monitor the fuel as operations followed us for safety. It was a stressful situation. Our next plane to taxi was with an inoperative APU. We did our checklist; and an air start of the left engine at the gate. We got clearance to spot one and asked ground for clearance to do a cross bleed start. Were cleared to taxiway; Ground then gave us permission to start our cross bleed. The left seat mechanic started the cross bleed start in manual mode. During the start; I heard another aircraft tell the tower 'the plane in front of us has a right engine fire' The tower then called us and said our right engine was on fire. I told Left seat mechanic the right engine was on fire and he shut the engine down. A few seconds later; the aircraft that was behind us said the fire was out. Then the same plane behind us came back on and said the fire was back burning. We feared for our safety and the safety of the aircraft at that time and decided to start the A320 Emergency Procedures Briefing Guide. We followed the procedure; discharged number 1; and number 2 bottles. I then asked the tower if the fire was out. They said they couldn't verify the fire was out. I then saw personnel on the ground and I yelled out the window if the fire was out and they said yes.Not sure why the event occurred. We were relying on the pilot's warning and ground control's warning about the right engine fire because we were on an active taxiway. If not for an aircraft being right behind us the fire would have likely been much worse. If we had a ground crew we would have known immediately; we had an engine fire. I don't have a suggestion as to how to avoid a recurrence of this event because I am not sure why it happened.

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.