Some of the ancient monolithic statues in Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island have been damaged beyond repair in a wildfire, the authorities said.
The fire has burned more than 247 acres of the island, officials said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ariki Tepano, the director of the indigenous Ma’u Henua community, which manages Rapa Nui National Park, described the damage as “irreparable and with consequences beyond what your eyes can see.” The statues, he added, “are totally burned.”
Photos from Easter Island were posted on social media showing the charred statues and smoke dotting the landscape.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear, but Mayor Pedro Edmunds Paoa of Rapa Nui told Radio Pauta that he believed the fire was “not an accident” and that “all the fires on Rapa Nui are caused by human beings.”
“The damage caused by the fire can’t be undone,” Mr. Paoa said, “no matter how many millions of euros or dollars are put into it.”
A shortage of volunteer firefighters has made it difficult to control the blaze, the authorities said.
The area was closed to visitors as the authorities assessed the extent of the damage.
Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, sits in the Pacific Ocean, about 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile, and is among the world’s most remote inhabited islands.
The island has drawn more than 100,000 annual visitors in recent years. Tourists have long been curious about the haunting ancient monolithic statues, called moai, around 900 of which dot the landscape in Rapa Nui National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The sculptures’ long faces stare across the lush landscape, which is home to more than 300 ceremonial platforms and structures related to agriculture, funeral rites, housing and production, among other activities, according to UNESCO.
Visitors are also drawn to the mysterious history of the island and the Polynesians who discovered it 1,000 years ago. The island is about 15 miles across at its widest and is home to the Rano Raraku, a volcanic crater.
The Polynesians established a “powerful, imaginative and original tradition of monumental sculpture and architecture, free from any external influence,” UNESCO says on its website, adding that the enormous statues “created an unrivaled landscape that continues to fascinate people throughout the world.”
Many of the descendants of the Polynesian settlers fell prey to tribal fighting, European disease and the Peruvian slave trade. Archaeologists believe that the moai represent the ancestors of the islanders.
The island reopened to tourism in August after being closed for more than two years because of the coronavirus pandemic.
