Airbus Cargo smoke : the philosophy
 

ok here's an issue that's bothering me arising from lack of consensus in the training : On an A320 family if you have a cargo smoke alert and you activate the extinguishing agent , the smoke warning will remain because the smoke is now trapped in what becomes a tight-seal compartment and the extinguishing agent itself is perceived as 'smoke' by the detectors .
By this fact many instructors conclude that a fire cannot reignite . You have an extinguishing agent which 'inhibits' the potency of oxygen to sustain combustion within that tight-seal space . With this thought you really do not need to act immediately for the Red LAND ASAP . You can examine the possibility of continuing to your destination if its relatively close and occasionally have a flight attendant checking the floor above the affected compartment for any unusual heat .
I have my ideas and thoughts on this issue which I will not mention now .
I would like to know your approach and thoughts on this issue and more importantly how does your training department sees it

Airbus have a cabin which is meant to be fairly air tight with the outflow valve shut.

On an air test we had an air frame with a 6000' / min rate of climb of the cabin pressure when the packs were turned off.

I would want to get on the ground ASAP.

Got to be "LAND ASAP". It could be Li batteries down there.

Tom775 i have no clue what you mean ... i am speaking about the cargo holds and you speak about the cabin

Treat any cargo fire as LAND ASAP red and fly with Vmo/Mmo to the nearest airport. You can try to extinguish the cargo fire and solve any other problems on the way to the airport, but first priority is getting to the runway ASAP.

Unless you packed and loaded the cargo yourself, you can never know what it actually contains. If the cause are lithium batteries, nothing will help you but landing as soon as possible and getting as far away from the aircraft as possible.

Next time anybody suggest you that you can easily continue to the destination with the cargo fire extinguished, have them read the final report of UPS 744 crash in Dubai. That should change their opinion on the severity of cargo fire.

Li batteries is my main concern as well . My approach is land ASAP .

You just don't know what's happening down there, and once you do know it is probably too late.

Alexious, I think most would agree the attitude of such instructors appears a little cavalier. I get the logic but in a world of litigation and what ifs we simply do not take chances if a warning is there. Try to envisage an accident in which the investigation is trying to understand what made the PIC ignore a smoke warning. Airbus manuals are written by lawyers so you can be sure that nothing in there will help you in your defence.