B737-800 captain reported that the cabin crew notified them of smoke and fumes in the aft galley; wh...

Narrative:

At cruise; flight attendant reported a smell of something burning in the aft galley. We turned the pack to a colder temperature thinking it may be getting too warm and told them we would check back in about two minutes. We called and they said it was the same; so I told them I was turning off the recirculation fans to see if that made any difference and it did not. At that time; we decided to divert; land; and have it checked by maintenance. We called dispatch to coordinate the off schedule arrival. During the descent the flight attendant called and told us the lights in the aft galley and cabin were beginning to flicker I told them to turn them off and we would be landing shortly. The first officer was flying the aircraft so we set up to go directly to the airport and we began running the smoke and fumes checklist. The flight attendant called us and said the cabin was beginning to have visible smoke. We identified to ATC as an emergency and requested the fire truck meet us upon landing. With the situation becoming worse in a period of approximately 10 minutes; I did not want to risk the safety of the passengers so I asked the flight attendants to prepare for evacuation upon arrival. They did so and we landed and taxied just off the runway and evacuated the aircraft on the taxiway. The fire trucks met us and helped with the passengers exiting the aircraft. We assisted the passengers and bused them to the terminal as quickly as possible.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 Captain reported that the cabin crew notified them of smoke and fumes in the aft galley; which led to a decision to divert and evacuate on the taxiway.

Narrative: At cruise; Flight Attendant reported a smell of something burning in the aft galley. We turned the pack to a colder temperature thinking it may be getting too warm and told them we would check back in about two minutes. We called and they said it was the same; so I told them I was turning off the recirculation fans to see if that made any difference and it did not. At that time; we decided to divert; land; and have it checked by Maintenance. We called Dispatch to coordinate the off schedule arrival. During the descent the Flight Attendant called and told us the lights in the aft galley and cabin were beginning to flicker I told them to turn them off and we would be landing shortly. The First Officer was flying the aircraft so we set up to go directly to the Airport and we began running the Smoke and Fumes Checklist. The Flight Attendant called us and said the cabin was beginning to have visible smoke. We identified to ATC as an emergency and requested the fire truck meet us upon landing. With the situation becoming worse in a period of approximately 10 minutes; I did not want to risk the safety of the passengers so I asked the Flight Attendants to prepare for evacuation upon arrival. They did so and we landed and taxied just off the runway and evacuated the aircraft on the taxiway. The fire trucks met us and helped with the passengers exiting the aircraft. We assisted the passengers and bused them to the terminal as quickly as possible.

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	1525769
Time
Date	201803
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Galley Furnishing
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

B737-800 captain reported that the cabin crew notified them of smoke and fumes in the aft galley; which led to a decision to divert and evacuate on the taxiway.