Iconic Easter Island 'Moai' statues severely damaged in wildfire: 'It's irrecoverable'
A devastating wildfire earlier this week caused "unmeasurable" damage to a number of Easter Island’s famous stone head statues. "It's unquantifiable, unmeasurable, the damage there is, it's irrecoverable," said Pedro Edmunds, mayor of Easter Island, a territory of Chile located 2,000 miles from the coast. "Because what the fire does is heat the rock and the rock cracks." Scientists will visit the island to assess the extent of the damage and determine what they can do to repair or salvage the statues damaged by the fire, but Edmunds said there may be no "solution." Edmunds also blamed a lack of support from Chile’s government as a cause of the damage, saying the state has remained "absent" and could have helped plan to "prevent these problems." Damaged Moai statues are seen after a wildfire at a local park in Easter Island, Chile, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on October 7, 2022.