Fire damages iconic statues on Easter Island
SANTIAGO, Chile — A fire that ripped through part of Chile’s Easter Island last week has caused permanent damage to some of its iconic carved stone figures known as moai, authorities said.
The 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 in the Pacific Ocean has some 800 moais, with half inside the Rano Raraku volcano.
The fire blazed through 104 acres and particularly affected an area inside the volcano where there are around 100 moais, around 20 percent of which have been damaged, the mayor said. There are also some damaged structures outside the volcano.
The high temperatures calcinate the stone of the moais, which leads it to “crack” and with time “it starts to collapse,” Edmunds Paoa said.
The mayor blamed locals who raise cows and horses on the island and regularly burn grassland. He also 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,” Edmunds Paoa said.
Ninoska Huki, local head of the National Forest Corporation, had said earlier that the island lacked firefighters.
Officials are working to determine how much the fire has affected the island, which is around 2,300 miles from mainland Chile and 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.