The Rano Raraku volcanic crater quarry, where ancient Rapa Nui created the majestic Moai on Easter Island, is off-limits to fire engines. For this reason, when the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) received reports of a fire in the area last Tuesday, they had to send firefighters to put out the flames on foot. The complexity of the task, combined with the high winds, allowed the blaze to burn through 104 hectares of grassland and damage about 80 moai. Of the 416 stone statues erected in the area, 20% have suffered some damage as a result of the fire, which is already under control, according to preliminary figures released by Easter Island Mayor Pedro Edmunds at a breakfast with journalists in Santiago this Friday.
There are “completely charred” moais and others whose effects of fire are still unknown, speeding the transformation from rock to sand. “A lot of them look good on the outside, but the crack is on the inside,” explains Edmunds. The fire occurred in a particularly sensitive heritage area of the tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and part of Chile’s Valparaíso region 3,600 kilometers away. As a quarry of mysterious statues, one can still see some unfinished ones embedded in the volcanic rock, like the Te Tokanga, 22 meters long and weighing about 200 tons.
“The burning of the Moais is death in life. The Moais are our ancestors, it’s not the monument in Plaza Baquedano. It is the image, the soul, of the people of Rapa Nui. Having these monuments there is a teaching of humanity in the sense of the scientific, practical, logistic, mystical, planning and in the sense of the deities,” said the mayor, who has served five periods of itinerant service since 1994.
In previous fires that have also affected some moai, Japanese and Chilean scientists from the National Monuments Council have applied chemical solutions to the stone to create a protective layer. Before deciding what action to take, they must assess the damage in collaboration with UNESCO, which declared the island a World Heritage Site in 1986.
Edmunds traced the origin of the flames to the burning of pastures “which some horse and cow breeders do on the island. It’s something historical, there’s always someone who burns it.” Agriculture Minister Esteban Valenzuela announced this Friday that the cause of the fire is being investigated and that Conaf will have a permanent forest brigade in Easter Island year-round.
The minister also asked the mayor for “shared responsibility”. “You have to understand that autonomy is not self-isolation. There has to be a technical surveillance work that they do with Conaf and also share responsibility because illegal land has been confiscated here, including areas of the national park,” said Valenzuela.
Ninoska Huki, provincial chief of Conaf on Easter Island, told La Tercera that the company “hires brigades during the wildfire season, and that starts in the second half of October through April,” so the brigade was not active. Chile is also the only country in the world where its firefighters are volunteers, and attracting new young people to the fire service is becoming increasingly difficult. From July 1, 2020 to April 21 this year, 60 forest or vegetation fires occurred on the island, 13% fewer than in the same period last year.
During his visit to Santiago, just after the island reopened to tourism after nearly two and a half years of being closed due to the pandemic, the mayor met with President Gabriel Boric and some of his ministers to call for a budget adjustment for Easter Island. Because Rapa Nui thrived on tourism, the isolation “bankrupted” the community, according to the municipality. Of the 800 park rangers hired to prevent fires, clean up, stop tourists from scratching the statues, etc., there are now only 120 in the 16,000-acre park. The island receives just three weekly flights — 750 passengers – compared to the 14 that arrived before the closure – 8,000 passengers. “Who will come to you to help put out fires if you don’t pay them? It’s that simple,” said the mayor, who didn’t get the readjustment for the 2023 budget.