Bulgaria Probes Fire at EMCO Arms Depot, Sabotage Not Ruled Out

Bulgarian authorities are investigating the cause of a fire at a weapons storage facility operated by arms manufacturer EMCO, with Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev saying sabotage and a possible connection to an earlier blaze at another company site are both being examined.

The fire broke out near the village of Tsareva Livada and illuminated the night sky, according to footage circulated locally. No injuries were reported. Demerdzhiev told journalists the situation was under control and that a probe was underway.

"We will review previous cases in which similar fires occurred in the warehouses of this company, as well as at other companies, in order to look for a possible connection or a similar pattern," he said, adding that outside interference had not been ruled out.

EMCO said in a statement that the fire resulted from sabotage, pointing to more than ten comparable incidents at Bulgarian defence firms since 2011. The company said it saw no reason to treat this case differently, though it did not name any suspects.

Slavcho Dimiev, who manages EMCO's production facilities, confirmed the fire at the storage site, which he said mainly holds ammunition, including a small quantity of medium-calibre rounds.

EMCO is led by Bulgarian arms trader Emilian Gebrev, whom prosecutors have previously described as the target of attacks on his facilities by Russian operatives. In 2024, Bulgaria issued arrest warrants for six Russian citizens accused of involvement in the destruction of EMCO arms depots that stored munitions intended for export to Ukraine and Georgia between 2011 and 2020. Prosecutors at the time said they had grounds to suspect links between the Bulgarian blasts, an attempted poisoning of Gebrev in 2015, and munitions depot explosions in the Czech Republic in 2014. Moscow has rejected the allegations.

The company also criticised authorities for what it called inadequate protection of defence facilities, saying not a single investigation into the more than ten such incidents at leading industry enterprises had been concluded. It said its warehouse had been inspected seven times since the start of the year, most recently 20 days before the fire.

Demerdzhiev voiced concerns about security and the conditions in which explosives are stored, as well as how the facilities are guarded.

The incident comes amid political flux in Bulgaria. Prime Minister Rumen Radev took office in April on a Kremlin-friendly ticket, but in June the newly appointed defence minister, Dimitar Stoyanov, said Bulgaria would stop supplying arms to Ukraine and urged Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate an end to the war.