the Falkland Islands and issued demands for other ships to identify themselves. This prompted a protest from the British government to the Argentine government over its policing of seas under Falkland jurisdiction. The diplomatic note also re-asserted British sovereignty over the islands. 2007 fire On 10 April 2007 at 22:00 UTC−03:00, a massive fire broke out in the auxiliary generator compartment. By midnight, captain Guillermo Tarapow had ordered the evacuation. Argentine Navy and Argentine Coast Guard aircraft, including P-3 Orion and Hercules C-130 aircraft, operated to keep track of the 24 lifeboats. The 296 persons aboard the icebreaker —including civilians of the Antarctic bases— were helped by the nearest ships, the Panamanian tanker Scarlet Ibis and a Uruguayan fishing vessel. The icebreaker was returning from its annual Antarctic summer campaign, and the incident took place some east of Puerto Madryn. The crew arrived safely in Puerto Madryn on 12 April. There were no casualties. The vessel's captain remained aboard alone for almost 24 hours after seeing his crew safely evacuated from the ship. Starting 11 April, destroyer , corvettes ARA Granville, and , avisos ARA Gurruchaga, , and , and Coast Guard , surrounded the icebreaker and began rescue operations. Buzos Tacticos and members of the Rescue Team () of the Argentine Navy boarded the ship and extinguished the fire. On 18 April, the ship started being towed to the Puerto Belgrano naval base. Irizar finally arrived to Puerto Belgrano on 20 April. The fire caused the loss of the two Sea King helicopters stored in their hangar, worth million each. These have been replaced by four Sea Kings transferred from the US government. Following this incident the British government offered to supply Argentine bases in Antarctica in support of scientific missions, using . This offer was turned down by the Argentine government, instead they leased the Russian icebreaking vessel Vasily Golovnin for the subsequent Antarctic summer campaigns at a cost of US$2m/month. The Dutch cargo vessel Timca was hired for the 2012/13 campaign. Vasily Golovnin would again carry out the following Antarctic campaign. Upgrade After a long period in Puerto Belgrano due to legal issues surrounding the incident, Irízar finally arrived in Buenos Aires on 3 September 2008 to be taken to Tandanor's shipyard for repairs. Repairs were expected to be completed in 2010 but continued into 2011, and were supervised by Norwegian shipyard Aker Yards. , the refit