Fire damages Easter Island statues

A fire that ripped through part of Chile’s Easter Island has caused permanent damage to some of its iconic carved stone figures known as moai.

The high temperature of the forest fire accelerated the process through which the stone carvings will eventually turn into sand, the mayor of the island locally known as Rapa Nui said.

The damage is “irreparable and immeasurable as well,” Mayor Pedro Edmunds Paoa said.

The Chilean island which lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has some 800 moais, half of which are inside the Rano Raraku volcano.
The work of avoiding accidents and fires involves a prevention plan that requires resources and that’s what we don’t have

The high temperatures calcinate the stone of the moais, which leads it to “crack” and with time “it starts to collapse,” the mayor told a local radio station.

The mayor blamed locals who raise cows and horses in the island and regularly burn grassland.

Edmunds Paoa accused the state of abandoning the island.

“The work of avoiding accidents and fires involves a prevention plan that requires resources and that’s what we don’t have,” he said.

Ninoska Huki, the local head of the National Forest Corporation, had said earlier that the island lacked firefighters.

Officials are currently working to determine how much the fire has affected the island, which is around 3,700 kilometres from mainland Chile and is inhabited by some 7,700 people.

The island is known around the world for its moais, stone structures that are thought to weigh around 14 tons, and the Rapa Nui National Park covers around 40 per cent of the island.

Since 2019, Easter Island is locally known as Rapa Nui-Easter Island.

The island reopened to tourists in August after it was closed off for more than two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.