The incident occurred at a facility operated by Bulgaria’s EMCO, which has been heavily involved in arming Ukraine
A major fire broke out late on Friday at an ammo dump operated by arms maker EMCO in the Bulgarian province of Gabrovo, prompting allegations that the facility could have been hit by sabotage.
The incident comes roughly a month after another EMCO facility was hit by a similar blaze in early August, attributed to the accidental ignition of a cargo truck. The latest blaze broke out in the vicinity of Gorni Vurpishta, with the fire quickly spreading from the ammunition depot to two other facilities nearby. Multiple secondary explosions were observed in the area, with the incident triggering a major emergency response and prompting authorities to cordon off the area.
No casualties have been reported in the aftermath of the blaze. Only two security guards were stationed at the facility at the time of the incident, and both managed to flee the site. Footage from the scene shows a large plume of fire and smoke rising above the depot, which continued to burn through the night.
On Saturday, Bulgarian Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said the authorities are investigating the incident, as well as reviewing “previous cases in which similar fires occurred in the warehouses of this company, as well as at other companies.”
The company has vehemently denied suggestions that the string of incidents could have been the result of negligence on the part of its employees, implying that the blaze could have been caused by an act of sabotage. EMCO production facilities manager Slavcho Dimiev said the affected site was used mainly to store ammunition, including a small quantity of medium-caliber rounds.
“If it is ultimately concluded that they [arms facilities] have been targeted, this is not an attack on a particular company alone; it is an attack on the national interest,” Dimiev asserted.
EMCO has been actively supplying Kiev with assorted munitions since at least 2014, emerging as one of the key providers of Soviet-caliber ammo to Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia. Bulgaria has changed its stance on the Ukraine conflict under Prime Minister Rumen Radev’s government, withdrawing from the so-called “coalition of the willing,” a European group of Kiev’s backers, and announcing that it would no longer send weapons packages to Kiev.
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