A chimney that devastated part of Chile’s Easter Island this week has permanently damaged some of its iconic carved stone figures known as moai, the government said.
The wildfire’s peak temperature has accelerated the process by which stone carvings will eventually turn into sand, said the mayor of the island known as Rapa Nui.
It’s “irreparable and immeasurable as well,” Mayor Pedro Edmunds Paoa said.
The Chilean island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has about 800 moais, part of which are the Rano Raraku volcano.
This week’s fire burned 104 acres and hit a domain inside the volcano where about 100 moais, about 20 percent of which were broken, Paoa said. There are also broken structures outside the volcano.
High temperatures burn the moai stone, causing it to “crack” and eventually “begin to collapse,” Edmunds Paoa told a radio station.
The mayor blamed locals who raise cows and horses on the island and burn pastures.
Edmunds Paoa blamed the island state.
“The picture of avoiding injuries and fires goes through a prevention plan that asks for resources and that is what we do not have,” he said.
Ninoska Huki, director of the National Forestry Corporation, had earlier said the island lacked firefighters.
Authorities are recently assessing the extent to which the fire affected the island, which is about 3,700 kilometers from mainland Chile and is inhabited by about 7,700 people.
The island is international for its moais, stone structures weighing around 14 tons, and Rapa Nui National Park covers around 40% of the island.
Since 2019, Easter Island is known as Rapa Nui-Easter Island.
The island reopened to tourists in August after being closed for more than two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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