Narrative:

While sitting in the penalty box after arrival; waiting for a gate for approx 45 minutes; we started to smell an odor that seemed like deice fluid. It then started to smell like a burning electrical smell. We called the flight attendant to walk back and check things out to see if the intensity of the smell changed as she walked aft. About the time she called back; confirming the smell; we received an APU fire indication on the EICAS. As we started the APU fire QRH procedure; the APU shut itself down and the fire seemed extinguished. We called ground control and had them send a truck to verify it was out prior to heading to the gate area. They sent what seemed like 15 trucks. After it was confirmed out; we had to fight with operations and dispatch to get priority handling to the gate. I was repeatedly declined. I was basically told that unless I was on fire currently; I had to wait like everybody else. While this was technically safe; the passengers did not understand or care for that action. They kept looking at those 15 fire trucks and starting to wonder what was going on. Finally; 30 minutes later; we rolled into a gate. The fire department inspected the back wall of the lavatory and cargo bin and found no more indications of a fire. I find it kind of ridiculous that we had that kind of a situation and they wouldn't let us into an open gate. When I asked about a gate in sight being open; I was told that eventually an international arrival would need it and I was declined. However; the conditions also didn't warrant an evacuation onto an icy taxiway when the fire was out.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An EMB145 APU Fire Warning alerted; then it auto shut down as they awaited a gate so the crew called the airport Fire Department who saw no fire but the aircraft continued waiting over 30 minutes for a gate.

Narrative: While sitting in the penalty box after arrival; waiting for a gate for approx 45 minutes; we started to smell an odor that seemed like deice fluid. It then started to smell like a burning electrical smell. We called the Flight Attendant to walk back and check things out to see if the intensity of the smell changed as she walked aft. About the time she called back; confirming the smell; we received an APU fire indication on the EICAS. As we started the APU FIRE QRH procedure; the APU shut itself down and the fire seemed extinguished. We called Ground Control and had them send a truck to verify it was out prior to heading to the gate area. They sent what seemed like 15 trucks. After it was confirmed out; we had to fight with Operations and Dispatch to get priority handling to the gate. I was repeatedly declined. I was basically told that unless I was on fire currently; I had to wait like everybody else. While this was technically safe; the passengers DID NOT understand or care for that action. They kept looking at those 15 fire trucks and starting to wonder what was going on. Finally; 30 minutes later; we rolled into a gate. The Fire Department inspected the back wall of the lavatory and cargo bin and found no more indications of a fire. I find it kind of ridiculous that we had that kind of a situation and they wouldn't let us into an open gate. When I asked about a gate in sight being open; I was told that eventually an international arrival would need it and I was declined. However; the conditions also didn't warrant an evacuation onto an icy taxiway when the fire was out.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.