Date: 202201
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Night
Aircraft: B777-200
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Parked
Aircraft component: Engine Starting System
Component problem: Improperly Operated
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: First Officer; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Troubleshooting; Communication Breakdown
Second reporter function: Captain; Pilot Flying
Anomaly: Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: Aircraft In Service At Gate
Result: Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Contributing factors: Aircraft; MEL; Procedure; Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: APU was MELed INOP. Looked to Vol 1 for Alternate Start Procedure. Followed the Manual Start procedures. After selecting Right Eng Start; I selected Fuel Control to RUN. There was some vibration but everything else seemed normal. Looked like a normal start and moved START switch to NORM. As I was getting ready to call for push; I saw the EGT rising. I brought it to the Captain's attention who directed me to go to CUTOFF. At the same time; the Ground Crew is telling the Captain that there is an engine fire. The Captain tried to get confirmation if it was a tail pipe fire. Unable to get a confirmation; the Captain pulled the ENG FIRE handle and discharged #2 bottle for the right engine. There was no FIRE indication in the cockpit; the only indication was the rising EGT reading. After we determined there was no longer a fire we contacted Ramp and Maintenance.


Second narrative: APU Bleed Air INOP so we had to use external air and start one of the engines at the gate. FO (First Officer) stated that this would be a manual start which seemed okay to me. FO said that this procedure called for the auto start switch to be off and questioned that. I said that if it was part of the procedure then we should do it. When we began to start the right engine the FO turned on the start/ignition switch to start and put the fuel control switch to run which did not seem correct to me. I asked to look at the FO's iPad since I could not get my Comply 365 to open up. I quickly looked at the procedure and did not see where the fuel control switch was mentioned. There was some significant vibration during the start which took my attention away from the iPad to look at the engine instruments. The vibration stopped and the engines seemed to stabilize. I asked the FO if we had a good start. The answer was yes. I looked up at the Start/Ignition switch and it was still in the start position. I thought that since the Auto Start switch was off then we need to manually put it back to Norm which I then did. I told the ground crew that we had a normal start and they could disconnect the external air. The FO then said that we had high EGT. I looked at the gauges and saw that it was in the red and increasing. I put the Fuel Control switch to cutout. The ground crew said that we had a fire. The FO said that we did not have any fire warnings. I asked the Ground Crew if it was a tailpipe fire. They responded that we had a fire. Since we had XXX people on board I didn't want to take any chances that it was a real fire. I pulled the fire handle and discharged the #2 fire bottle. The Ground Crew then said the fire was out. We called Ramp Control to get the jet bridge back to the gate and Maintenance to inform them of the situation. I made a log book entry regarding the situation.Unable to look at my EFB in a timely manner. Lack of practice doing non-normal engine starts and an over reliance on the automation.1. Better guidance with the manual start procedure for both when to use it and to have the major actions like 'Fuel Control Switch.....RUN' be better high lighted. 2. Do more non-normal engine starts and abnormal engine starts during simulator training.


Synopsis: B777 flight crew reported improper alternate engine start procedures caused an engine fire; resulting in the aircraft being towed back into the gate.