Some 80 iconic Easter Island statues have been damaged, some ‘irreparably’, by a fire that broke out earlier this week, authorities in the country and on the island said on Friday.
“The fire at the Rano Raraku volcano quarry has been extinguished (…), however causing irreparable damage to the cultural heritage of humanity,” said Chilean President Gabriel Boric.
The fire devastated a hundred hectares of Rapa Nui National Park and reached the area of the Rano Raraku volcano where the quarry is located where the ancient indigenous Rapa Nui civilization made its moai statues. The site houses 416 of these sculptures in various stages of manufacture.
Flames, smoke and water caused 20% of the statues at the site – including around 100 inside the quarry – to be damaged, island mayor Pedro Edmunds said, adding that one had suffered ‘irreparable damage’.
‘It will stay there, as it is, until we assess the damage, and then we will call on humanity to see what solution we can envisage,’ said the chosen one, explaining that the flames had progressed quickly because of the lack of guards in the park, due according to him to the ‘abandonment of the island’ by the government.
Probably criminal fire
Due to the geography, the fire engines were also unable to access the very site of the fire, which was probably of criminal origin. ‘This fire was started by cattle herders for grazing. Everything points to it,” Chilean Agriculture Minister Esteban Valenzuela said.
Isolated in the middle of the Pacific, 3500 km from the Chilean coast, Easter Island, of Polynesian culture, is known worldwide for its impressive megaliths of mysterious origin, listed as World Heritage by Unesco. Some can reach 20 meters in height and weigh up to 80 tons.
The fire occurred three months after the island reopened to world tourism in early August after two years of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic, the island, whose main means of subsistence is tourism, welcomed 160,000 visitors a year, with two flights a day.
/ATS