Several of Easter Island’s iconic Moai stone statues have been irreparably damaged by a wildfire that swept through the island last week with the extent of the impact to be determined by visiting scientists and Rapa Nui National Park administrators.
“It’s unquantifiable, unmeasurable, the damage there is, it’s irrecoverable because what the fire does is heat the rock and the rock cracks,” the island’s Mayor Pedro Edmunds said.
“I don’t know if there’s a solution for this,” he said.
He said scientists will visit the island, a territory of Chile, alongside park administrators to evaluate the extent of the damage and determine what can be done.
A preliminary report released by Chile’s Culture, Arts and Heritage ministry stated a wildfire that started on Tuesday 4 October swept through more than 60 hectares and damaged an unknown number of the sacred Moai statues.
The report did not state a cause for the wildfire and said there would be further investigations into the fire and the damage it caused.
The Rano Raraku volcanic crater, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Rapa Nui National Park where several statues are located, was severely damaged by the fire.
“For us, it’s super painful to see how the Moai burned,” said Francisco Haoa, a representative of the Rapa Nui people, adding that the statues already face slow damage from rain, sun and wind.
“And the fire accelerates that damage to the Moais.”
Easter Island, more than 3,200km from the coast of Chile, reopened to tourists on 1 August after closing its borders for more than two years due to the pandemic.
Via AAP
