According to Jacelino Pinto, the unit's supervisor, the fires are being set around the perimeter of the gas reception and processing unit from the Angola LNG factory, to operate some turbines at the Soyo combined cycle plant.
"We are aware that the fires are happening because farmers need to prepare their cultivation areas and hunt rats. What happens is that during the fires, sparks travel to the inside of the unit, which ends up being a risk to our daily activities", said Jacelino Pinto, in statements to Rádio Nacional de Angola.
The official stressed that this issue is a concern, because "there are a series of safety requirements that need to be ensured, in order to avoid catastrophic situations".
Jacelino Pinto highlighted that the wind spreads the sparks that end up "invading the internal space of the unit and the gas pipeline corridor, creating the risk of fire and explosion".
Recently, activist Rafael Maques, director of the Maka Angola portal, said, citing the Global Forest Fire Information System, that the issue of forest fires is a problem and, in the second week of this month alone, forest fires devastated six percent of Angola's total land surface.
"This is the highest percentage of land burned in the world, followed by our neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 2.6 percent", said Rafael Marques in his article on the fires.
In turn, Global Forest Watch, also cited by the researcher, revealed that, in 2024 alone, international monitoring recorded 109,349 forest fire alerts in Angola, estimating that, from 2001 to 2023, Angola lost nearly four million hectares of tree cover, equivalent to seven percent of the total tree cover in the country.
