Narrative:

An aircraft declared over the frequency mayday 3 times and advised he had a fuel fire and needed an immediate descent as well as to land at the nearest airport. I instructed the pilot to descend to 27;000 ft. And turn 20 degrees to the right for traffic. The pilot read back the altitude. I was coordinating with the controller in charge that I had an aircraft with a fire and needed an immediate descent and was now diverting to land. I tried to get the pilot to get his attention again and he told me to standby. So I called the adjacent area and asked them to turn the aircraft in conflict. They were unsure of what to do. I then called the pilot again to ask him to turn 20 degrees right again and he complied this time. He asked which runway to expect and I advised them of the three runways he had to choose from. He asked which one was the longest and I looked it up and all 3 were the same length and relayed this information. Coordination was done also with the adjacent center sector over the aircraft and the situation. The pilot said he just had an APU fire but he had already used the fire bottle and still needed to land immediately and requested a fire truck.the pilot then flew a little past the airport and said he was going to circle to the north since he still needed to lose altitude but had the field in sight for the visual approach. I read the aircraft the current weather and notams and then asked to ensure that the only thing he presently needed was a fire truck standing by to which he replied affirmative. As the aircraft turned in to land I cleared him for the visual approach and switched him to advisory frequencies. The aircraft landed without incident and canceled his flight plan around 30 minutes later.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Center Controller reported an aircraft advised them of a fire on board; resulting in priority handling given and a diversion.

Narrative: An aircraft declared over the frequency mayday 3 times and advised he had a fuel fire and needed an immediate descent as well as to land at the nearest airport. I instructed the pilot to descend to 27;000 ft. and turn 20 degrees to the right for traffic. The pilot read back the altitude. I was coordinating with the Controller in Charge that I had an aircraft with a fire and needed an immediate descent and was now diverting to land. I tried to get the pilot to get his attention again and he told me to standby. So I called the adjacent area and asked them to turn the aircraft in conflict. They were unsure of what to do. I then called the pilot again to ask him to turn 20 degrees right again and he complied this time. He asked which runway to expect and I advised them of the three runways he had to choose from. He asked which one was the longest and I looked it up and all 3 were the same length and relayed this information. Coordination was done also with the adjacent Center sector over the aircraft and the situation. The pilot said he just had an APU fire but he had already used the fire bottle and still needed to land immediately and requested a fire truck.The pilot then flew a little past the airport and said he was going to circle to the north since he still needed to lose altitude but had the field in sight for the Visual Approach. I read the aircraft the current weather and NOTAMs and then asked to ensure that the only thing he presently needed was a fire truck standing by to which he replied affirmative. As the aircraft turned in to land I cleared him for the visual approach and switched him to advisory frequencies. The aircraft landed without incident and canceled his flight plan around 30 minutes later.

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.