<p>An explosion has destroyed a Brazilian research base in Antarctica, killing two navy personnel and injuring a third, authorities said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Brazilian Defence Minister Celso Amorim confirmed the deaths of non-commissioned officer Carlos Alberto Vieira Figueiredo and sergeant Roberto Lopes dos Santos, who had earlier been reported missing.<br /><br />"In an act of heroism, they were precisely in the area of major risk in a bid to extinguish a fire and they did not succeed," Amorim said.<br /><br />Navy sergeant Luciano Gomes Medeiros was also lightly injured in the blast, which occurred late yesterday after a fire in a room housing energy generators of the Comandante Ferraz research base located in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.<br /><br />He was first treated at a nearby Arctowski Polish Antarctic station and later transferred to the Chilean Eduardo Frei military base.<br /><br />The Chilean Defense Ministry meanwhile confirmed that a joint Chilean-Brazilian team found the bodies of the two Brazilian personnel who had been reported missing after the fire.<br /><br />"The bodies were found near the stricken base" and will be transferred to the Eduardo Frei base, it added.<br /><br />Chilean Defence Minister Andres Allamand told CNN television that the Brazilian base "was completely destroyed" by the explosion.<br /><br />The blast also forced dozens of researchers to evacuate.</p>
<p>An explosion has destroyed a Brazilian research base in Antarctica, killing two navy personnel and injuring a third, authorities said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Brazilian Defence Minister Celso Amorim confirmed the deaths of non-commissioned officer Carlos Alberto Vieira Figueiredo and sergeant Roberto Lopes dos Santos, who had earlier been reported missing.<br /><br />"In an act of heroism, they were precisely in the area of major risk in a bid to extinguish a fire and they did not succeed," Amorim said.<br /><br />Navy sergeant Luciano Gomes Medeiros was also lightly injured in the blast, which occurred late yesterday after a fire in a room housing energy generators of the Comandante Ferraz research base located in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.<br /><br />He was first treated at a nearby Arctowski Polish Antarctic station and later transferred to the Chilean Eduardo Frei military base.<br /><br />The Chilean Defense Ministry meanwhile confirmed that a joint Chilean-Brazilian team found the bodies of the two Brazilian personnel who had been reported missing after the fire.<br /><br />"The bodies were found near the stricken base" and will be transferred to the Eduardo Frei base, it added.<br /><br />Chilean Defence Minister Andres Allamand told CNN television that the Brazilian base "was completely destroyed" by the explosion.<br /><br />The blast also forced dozens of researchers to evacuate.</p>
