By Tim Binnall
Authorities on Easter Island say that the several of the territory's famed Moai statues sustained significant damage after a massive fire spread through a national park containing many of the iconic monuments. The monstrous blaze reportedly erupted last week and covered a staggering 247 acres of the Rapa Nui national park, where hundreds of the iconic and mysterious stone pieces have sat for centuries. Director of the indigenous Ma'u Henua community which oversees the park, Ariki Tepano, lamented that damage done to the statues was "irreparable" and indicated that not only were multiple Moai badly charred, but the "consequences go beyond what the eyes can see."
The profound significance of the fire was echoed by Rapa Nui mayor Pedro Edmunds Paoa, who mournfully mused that "the damage is unquantifiable, unmeasurable," and that the impacted pieces are "unrecoverable" because the heat from the inferno causes the stone monuments to crack. He indicated that scientists will be dispatched to work with park administrators to assess the aftermath of the fire and determine how many statues were affected by the blaze as well as what can be done to protect the statues from similarly disastrous events in the future. Meanwhile, Tepano noted that the destruction from the fire is particularly dispiriting since the centuries-old pieces have already suffered significant weathering as a result of being exposed to the elements for so long.