A violent fire devastated Easter Island and caused irreversible damage to the famous stone statues.
On Tuesday, October 4, two fires broke out in Rapa Nui National Park, a nature reserve in Chile, on Easter Island. Unfortunately, only 6 firefighters were on hand to fight the blaze, as reported by Courrier International.
The firefighters first tackled the fire that was threatening the homes, only two rangers and a truck were left to tackle the second fire point near the Moais, the famous stone giants known worldwide and listed as World Heritage of Humanity. Scientists have long questioned these monumental statues that seem to watch over the world.
“More than 100 hectares are affected in the Rano-Raraku sector, including wetlands and moai. Today, the lack of volunteers at the national level makes it increasingly complex to fight the fires that have occurred in recent days and ended yesterday with one of the most important archaeological sites,” the park said.
Ariki Tepano, Ma’u Henua Municipality director responsible for the park’s management and maintenance, described the damage as “irreparable.”
The Moai are completely charred and you can see the effect of the fire on them
The sector has nearly 1,000 of these 4 meter high megaliths with “oversized heads” carved by the Polynesians of Rapa Nui between the 13th and 16th centuries. About a hundred statues were damaged, 80 of them beyond repair due to heat-related cracks in the volcanic rock.
Many moais on Easter Island damaged after a fire. Some considered it irreparable. The fire that broke out last Monday affected almost 60 hectares of land and would have affected the Rano Raraku volcanic sector https://t.co/rSg6jSlm8J @BBC News pic.twitter.com/WFb5EEr4YV
— Bernadette Arnaud (@NarudaaArnaud) October 7, 2022
Closed for two years due to Covid, the island reopened to tourism last August. The economic consequences are likely to be significant, as tourism associated with the discovery of the statues is the island’s main source of income.