By REBECCA PALMER - The Dominion Post
A hut that sheltered Sir Edmund Hillary on his last night in Antarctica has been destroyed by fire.
The A-frame hut on the Ross Ice Shelf near Scott Base burnt down on Saturday night.
Originally part of the United States base, it served New Zealand staff in Antarctica for decades after being discarded by the Americans.
Antarctica New Zealand chief executive Lou Sanson said the fire started during a routine inspection and changeover of the diesel fuel tanks used to heat the timber and bitumen hut.
When the heater was reignited, priming fuel "flashed over" and set fire to the hut, he said.
Staff tried to fight the fire but the hut burnt quickly in air temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees celsius.
Mr Sanson said Antarctica New Zealand was "extremely thankful" nobody had been seriously injured. One staff member suffered minor burns to one of his hands.
Fire was one of the biggest hazards in Antarctica. "The wood just gets very, very dry."
The Chilean contingent lost their mess facility to a fire last month and two Russians were killed by a fire at their station last year, he said.
Mr Sanson said the hut had been moved onto the Ross Ice Shelf in 1971 from the McMurdo Station ice wharf, after the building was discarded by the US Antarctic programme. "The Kiwis of Scott Base quickly made it their own ... The A-frame represented something uniquely Kiwi in Antarctica. It was the concept of a mountain hut mixed with a bach."
Thousands of New Zealanders would be familiar with it because it was used for field training at Scott Base. It had housed many New Zealand scientists, artists and politicians.
The hut was also used as a retreat for staff, Mr Sanson said.
"It was the only place you could really get away from the monotony of base life."
It earned the nickname "love shack" after a couple were trapped there in 2004, during the worst storm to hit Antarctica in a decade. They were rescued by a team from Scott Base 16 hours later when conditions eased.
It was the "favourite haunt" of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, who asked to spend his last night in Antarctica there after the official Scott Base 50th birthday celebrations in 2007. Then 87, Sir Ed shared Antarctic tales at the hut with nine others, including Mr Sanson.
He had wanted to spend the night with "a few friends and a bottle of Scotch", much like his first night there 50 years earlier.
Mr Sanson said a memorial to Sir Ed, featuring his quotes and a photo of him outside the hut, had been placed there after his death last year.
