Several stone moai statues on Easter Island have been irreversibly damaged by a wildfire that broke out a day ago, the island’s mayor told Reuters on Friday.
“It’s impossible to quantify, it’s impossible to measure, the damage is irreparable,” said Pedro Edmunds, mayor of Easter Island, a territory of the Chilean state.
He explained that this is because “the fire heats the stone and the stone cracks.”
Edmunds says more scientists need to arrive on the island to assess the damage and see what can be done.
“I don’t know if there is a solution to this,” he lamented.
A preliminary report released by Chile’s Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage said the forest fire that broke out on Thursday affected more than 60 hectares of land and damaged an unknown number of Moai statues.
The message does not say what caused the fire, only that the investigation into its origin is ongoing.
Rano Raraku Volcanic Crater, a UNESCO site in Rapa Nui National Park that houses several statues, was also badly damaged by the fire.
Damage to the Moai statues, cause of dispute between Easter Island and the government
“It’s extremely painful for us to see how the moai were burned,” says Francisco Haoa, a representative of the Rapa Nui indigenous community, adding that the statues are still affected by sunlight, rain and wind over time.
“And fire accelerates the damage to the Moai statues,” he says.
Located 3,219 kilometers west of the coast of Chile, Easter Island is one of the most isolated places on Earth. On August 1, local authorities decided to reopen the island to tourists after being closed for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carolina Perez, one of the Chilean government’s secretaries of state for culture, wrote on her Twitter page that the Santiago de Chile government offers its full support to the island’s authorities, but Mayor Edmunds blames the situation on a lack of executive support. .
“The decision is in the hands of an absent state that was absent and remains absent,” he said, also accusing the Chilean government of “not wanting to listen to what the island plans to prevent these problems.”
The fire comes after another statue was destroyed in a truck accident two years ago.
Source: Hot News RO
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