ARA Almirante Irízar is a large icebreaker of the Argentine Navy. She was ordered from a shipyard in Finland in 1975. A fire broke out in her auxiliary generator compartment in 2007, putting her out of commission until April 2017. Background The ship was named after Julián Irízar. In 1903, when he held the rank of Lieutenant, he commanded the Argentine corvette during a successful mission to rescue the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of Professor Otto Nordenskjöld, after the expedition had been trapped by the Antarctic winter. The vessel was built at the Wärtsilä Helsinki Shipyard in Finland, under a contract signed in 1975 between the Argentine Navy and the shipyard. Irízar was launched in February 1978 and was formally commissioned on December that year, arriving in Argentina on 23 March 1979. She replaced the elderly icebreaker , which was then retired from active service. Almirante Irízars peacetime missions include annual campaigns to resupply and rotate the personnel assigned to the Argentine Antarctic outposts, as well as conducting and supporting scientific endeavors in Antarctica. She has also conducted several passenger tours to Patagonia and the Antarctic. The ship's homeport is at the Argentine Navy's Buenos Aires Naval Anchorage () in the capital city of Buenos Aires. Service During the Falklands War () the vessel served as troop transport on the 2 April operation and then as a hospital ship, Helicopters departing from Almirante Irizar's helipad landed Argentine troops on Darwin and Fox Bay on 2 April 1982. In April 1982, while operating north of the Falklands, the boilers of tanker ARA Punta Médanos failed and she lost all propulsion; Almirante Irízar towed her back to Puerto Madryn (about 330 miles west) in rough weather, the trip took about 60 hours. Punta Médanos couldn't be repaired, and was unable to continue operations during the war. After the end of the war, she was converted into a hospital ship. The ship gained attention in 2002, when she attempted to rescue the supply vessel Magdalena Oldendorff, which was trapped in pack ice off Antarctica. Even though Irízar failed to break Magdalena Oldendorff free, she managed to move it to a safer position and resupply the ship with food, medicine and medical personnel until the ice melted and Magdalena Oldendorff could return to open sea. 2004 incident On 15/16 March 2004, the ship entered a maritime area designated as conservation zones under the jurisdiction of