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A fire in Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) burned more than 100 hectares of vegetation and affected 20 percent of the island's moai; Mayor Pedro Edmunds said Friday when presenting a balance of the incident.
"A fire consumed more than 100 hectares of vegetation on the island, which affected 20 percent of the 836 moais made," Edmunds said in an interview with local media.
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The mayor explained that the fire arose from the burning of pastureland by some horse and cow breeders and alleged that this is a common problem that has been repeated in recent times.
However, in this case, the emergency was more severe because the flames entered the Rano Raraku moai quarry and burned the material of dozens of statues.
"What the fire does is to burn the stone, and instead of breaking, it cracks, like crocodile skin, and with time it crumbles, that is to say, what happened is that the process in which the stone will turn into sand was accelerated and that is irrecoverable," he said.
Edmunds detailed that the damages figure is still preliminary and informed that the experts initiated a study in the field to determine the actual caliber of the deterioration.
The moais are stone megaliths in the shape of human heads carved by the Rapa Nui tribe more than 500 years ago.
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