  The nebular He II {\lambda}1640 emission line is observed in star forming
galaxies out to large distances and can be used to constrain the properties of
sources of He+ ionizing photons. For this purpose, it is crucial to understand
which are the main stellar sources of these photons. In some nearby metal poor
starburst galaxies, nebular He II {\lambda}4686 (optical equivalent) is
accompanied by a broad underlying component, which is generally attributed to
formation in the winds of classical (He burning) Wolf Rayet stars, primarily of
the WN subtype. In such cases, the origin of the nebular component has been
proposed to be the escape of He+ ionizing photons from the winds of the WN
stars, at least partially. We use archival long slit observations obtained with
Focal Reducer Low Dispersion Spectrograph (FORS1) on the Very Large Telescope
to look for nebular He II {\lambda}4686 emission south of the WN6h + WN6(7)
close binary in HD 5980. We only find broad He II {\lambda}4686 emission, as
far as aprox. 7.6 pc from the binary. A comparison with observations obtained
with Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope,
at a similar orbital phase, shows that the FORS1 broad He II emission is likely
contamination from the multiple star system HD 5980. We use models to show that
no significant He+ ionizing flux is expected from the WN stars in HD 5980 and
that when similar stars are present in a coeval stellar population, the O stars
can be far greater emitters of He+ ionizing radiation.
