A flight attendant aboard a large transport aircraft was alerted to a galley fire by the strong pres...

Attributes
ACN	871780
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZFW.ARTCC
State Reference	TX
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Galley Furnishing
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Experience	Flight Attendant Airline Total 10 Flight Attendant Number Of Acft Qualified On 5 Flight Attendant Total 10 Flight Attendant Type 60
Events
Anomaly	Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

Narrative:

After brewing a pot of coffee; I smelled a strong electrical burning odor and heard a loud 'pop'. Smoke began emanating from behind the coffeemakers. I immediately turned off power to coffeemaker and pulled related circuit breakers; none of which were tripped during the incident. I removed the coffeemaker inflight with direction from the captain. Upon investigation after landing; I was informed that a wire underneath the coffeemaker had come loose and caused a short which ignited debris under the coffeemaker. The fire apparently extinguished itself; as the smoke dissipated quickly with no intervention other than cutting the power supply. Incidents similar to mine appear to have happened before; based on anecdotal evidence from other crewmembers. What is worrisome to me is that the circuit breaker did not do what it was designed to do; and that the seriousness of the incident was not realized by the cockpit until after landing and further examination by aircraft mechanics.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Flight Attendant aboard a large transport aircraft was alerted to a galley fire by the strong presence of electrical burning odor which dissipated when the circuit breakers to the coffee maker were pulled.

Narrative: After brewing a pot of coffee; I smelled a strong electrical burning odor and heard a loud 'POP'. Smoke began emanating from behind the coffeemakers. I immediately turned off power to coffeemaker and pulled related circuit breakers; none of which were tripped during the incident. I removed the coffeemaker inflight with direction from the Captain. Upon investigation after landing; I was informed that a wire underneath the coffeemaker had come loose and caused a short which ignited debris under the coffeemaker. The fire apparently extinguished itself; as the smoke dissipated quickly with no intervention other than cutting the power supply. Incidents similar to mine appear to have happened before; based on anecdotal evidence from other crewmembers. What is worrisome to me is that the circuit breaker did not do what it was designed to do; and that the seriousness of the incident was not realized by the cockpit until after landing and further examination by aircraft mechanics.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

A flight attendant aboard a large transport aircraft was alerted to a galley fire by the strong presence of electrical burning odor which dissipated when the circuit breakers to the coffee maker were pulled.