A devastating fire earlier this week caused “immeasurable” damage to a number of Easter Island’s famous stonehead statues.
“The damage that exists is not quantifiable, not measurable, it is irrecoverable,” said Pedro Edmunds, mayor of Easter Island, a territory in Chile located 2,000 miles from the coast. “Because what fire does is heat the rock and the rock splits.”
Scientists will visit the island to assess the extent of the damage and determine what they can do to repair or save the statues damaged by the fire, but Edmunds said there may be no “solution”.
Edmunds also blamed the Chilean government’s lack of support as the cause of the damage, saying the state remained “absent” and could help plan to “prevent these problems.”
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Damaged Moai statues are seen after a fire in a local park in Easter Island, Chile, in this undated photo obtained by Reuters on October 7, 2022..
(Municipality of Rapa Nui / Dispensa via Reuters)
At present, the cause of the fire remains unknown and Edmunds said there will be an investigation into both the cause and the entire damage from the fire.
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A preliminary report said the fire broke out on Tuesday and consumed more than 148 acres, including the Rano Raraku volcanic crater where many of the statues reside.
Smoke rises from a fire burning in the Rano Raraku volcano area on Easter Island, Chile on October 6, 2022, in this image obtained from social media.
(Courtesy of Bomberos Isla de Pascua / via Reuters)
“For us, it’s super painful to see how the Moai are burned,” said Francisco Haoa, a representative of the Rapa Nui people, adding that the statues already take slow damage from time and the fire “will accelerate that damage.”
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The island, which is home to around 7,750 residents, was closed to visitors during the coronavirus pandemic and only reopened to visitors in August of this year.
Smoke rises from a fire burning in the Rano Raraku volcano area on Easter Island, Chile on October 6, 2022, in this image obtained from social media.
(Courtesy of Bomberos Isla de Pascua / via Reuters)
Easter Island’s mysterious “Moai” statues provide a great attraction for tourists to the islands, which amplifies any loss of stones. The island is home to over 1,000 statues, which can weigh several tons.
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The island earlier this year successfully won a long-standing battle to bring back one of the statues that had been removed to Santiago, the capital, in the 19th century, proving the statues’ worth to the locals. . The government is currently in talks with other institutions, such as the British Museum, to recover more pieces.
Reuters contributed to this report.
