Argentine Icebreaker Irizar abandoned at sea after fire

A raging fire aboard an Argentine navy vessel Almirante Irizar, South America's only icebreaker, forced all 296 crew and passengers to abandon ship in the South Atlantic, where they spent hours in lifeboats awaiting rescue.

The fire broke out in the Almirante Irizar's auxiliary generator compartment late Tuesday, and Capt. Guillermo Tarapow ordered all aboard to abandon ship in 24 lifeboats when the flames became uncontrollable.

The Panamanian-flagged tanker Scarlet Ibis and an Uruguayan fishing vessel were the first to arrive in the area, some 140 miles (225 kilometers) east of Puerto Madryn, and managed to pluck people from most of the lifeboats drifting off the remote Patagonian city of Puerto Madryn, 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires.

The Almirante Irizar was built in Finland and acquired by the Argentine navy in 1978. Measuring 390 feet (119 meters) in length, it has played key roles in Argentina's annual supply runs to Antarctica in the warmer Southern Hemisphere summer that begins each December.

The ship had restocked more than a dozen Argentine bases and research stations, and was returning to Buenos Aires with armed forces personnel who had concluded stints in Antarctica, when the fire broke out just after 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Passengers aboard the Irizar included civilian employees of Argentina's Antarctic National Command operation as well as army, air force and navy personnel.

Tugboats are now heading to the Irizar in order to assist her.