Narrative:

Held off starting the APU; since there was no need for it until departure. Once the door was closed; I started the APU; but the weak gpu meant a lot of systems temporarily tripped off line. As things came back online; I noticed; among other things that the bagg (baggage) smoke light was on. Having previously dealt with that light coming on due to a power spike; I reached up to simply reset it by pressing the test button; but in a moment of confusion; I instead reached for the bagg ext button; which of course; set off the cargo bay fire extinguishers.the first officer (first officer); unaware of my action in the moment; since he had been getting his checklist ready; was alerted by the EICAS warning; bagg smoke; and pulled the epc (emergency procedure checklist). We proceeded with that to make sure everything had subsequently been actioned accordingly. Ops was notified; so they emptied the cargo and checked the bags of those pax (passengers) who chose to continue with our flight. In the meantime; I called [operations control] and [maintenance control]; and we processed an MEL for the bagg extbtl inoperative. Once pax and bags had been processed; the flight continued.ultimately; it comes down to just pushing the wrong button. Contributing factors and distractions were:-when the door was closed; we realized the ground air was still hooked up; because there was a significant pressure bump in the aircraft.-at the same time; I was just about to start the APU; but we were distracted by the pressure spike.-we also noticed that the jetbridge was being pulled back; which caused us concern about the gpu still being hooked up until we realized that the gpu was a portable cart; separate from the jetbridge.-when the APU was started; all of the displays went dark for a moment due to the weak gpu; and we had to look over everything as the power came back on to see what needed to be reset; etc.a hard reminder of the lesson to not even touch a control; switch or button until you've paused; even for the briefest of moments; to reconfirm that it's the correct control and the consequences thereof.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ flight crew reported inadvertently activating cargo fire extinguisher at gate.

Narrative: Held off starting the APU; since there was no need for it until departure. Once the door was closed; I started the APU; but the weak GPU meant a lot of systems temporarily tripped off line. As things came back online; I noticed; among other things that the BAGG (Baggage) SMOKE light was on. Having previously dealt with that light coming on due to a power spike; I reached up to simply reset it by pressing the test button; but in a moment of confusion; I instead reached for the BAGG EXT button; which of course; set off the cargo bay fire extinguishers.The FO (First Officer); unaware of my action in the moment; since he had been getting his checklist ready; was alerted by the EICAS warning; BAGG SMOKE; and pulled the EPC (Emergency Procedure Checklist). We proceeded with that to make sure everything had subsequently been actioned accordingly. Ops was notified; so they emptied the cargo and checked the bags of those pax (passengers) who chose to continue with our flight. In the meantime; I called [Operations Control] and [Maintenance Control]; and we processed an MEL for the BAGG EXTBTL INOP. Once pax and bags had been processed; the flight continued.Ultimately; it comes down to just pushing the wrong button. Contributing factors and distractions were:-When the door was closed; we realized the ground air was still hooked up; because there was a significant pressure bump in the aircraft.-At the same time; I was just about to start the APU; but we were distracted by the pressure spike.-We also noticed that the jetbridge was being pulled back; which caused us concern about the GPU still being hooked up until we realized that the GPU was a portable cart; separate from the jetbridge.-When the APU was started; all of the displays went dark for a moment due to the weak GPU; and we had to look over everything as the power came back on to see what needed to be reset; etc.A hard reminder of the lesson to not even touch a control; switch or button until you've paused; even for the briefest of moments; to reconfirm that it's the correct control and the consequences thereof.

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.