Fire at Corbel research station near Ny-Ålesund

A fire started in the main building of the Corbel research station, 5 km from Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, at about midday on Tuesday 27 October, the French Polar Institute said. No one was injured.

The station belongs to AWIPEV, the research base that the institute and Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute run together in Ny-Ålesund. The building is the station's living quarters.

The fire appeared to have begun near the wood stove, the institute said. Staff of the base were working in a building nearby, stepped in and raised the alarm. The fire crew of Kings Bay, the company that runs Ny-Ålesund, responded and alerted the Norwegian authorities, who came to the station.

The damage was still hard to estimate, and the teams at the station were working to secure what could still be saved, the institute said.