Bulgaria investigates second weapons depot fire in weeks as owner alleges sabotage

An overnight fire has ripped through an ammunition depot in central Bulgaria, triggering a series of explosions and prompting an investigation into potential sabotage at a company that supplies weapons to Ukraine.

The blaze broke out on Friday night at a storage facility operated by the private defence firm EMCO near the village of Tsareva Livada, about 170 kilometres east of the capital, Sofia. Local police cordoned off the area and evacuated staff. While the fire lit up the night sky and caused extensive damage, authorities said no one was injured and there was no immediate danger to the local population.

The incident is the second fire to hit an EMCO weapons facility in just a few weeks, following a similar explosion at a depot in western Bulgaria in August.

Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said on Saturday that investigators are looking for a pattern. "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," Demerdzhiev told reporters, adding that the government is "not ruling out outside interference."

EMCO went further, explicitly blaming sabotage and ruling out any chance of an accident. The company said the warehouse had not been used for months and was inspected just 20 days ago, confirming full compliance with safety regulations. It was the seventh inspection of the site this year, according to the firm.

In a statement, the company accused Bulgarian authorities of failing to protect the country's defence infrastructure, noting that "not a single investigation into the more than ten such incidents at the industry's leading enterprises has been concluded."

EMCO’s production facilities manager, Slavcho Dimiev, confirmed the site held mostly ammunition, including a small quantity of medium-calibre rounds. He warned that if investigators confirm the site was targeted, "this is not an attack on a particular company alone; it is an attack on the national interest."

The company is owned by Emilian Gebrev, a prominent Bulgarian arms dealer who has long been a target of suspected Russian hostility. In 2015, Bulgarian prosecutors alleged that Russian agents tried to poison Gebrev, his son, and another company employee with an unidentified substance. Three Russian nationals were later charged in absentia for attempted murder.

More recently, in 2024, Bulgarian authorities issued arrest warrants for six Russian citizens accused of involvement in a decade-long campaign of explosions at EMCO depots between 2011 and 2020. Those munitions were reportedly destined for Ukraine and Georgia. Bulgarian prosecutors have previously pointed to links between the Bulgarian depot explosions, the poisoning attempt on Gebrev, and a massive 2014 ammunition depot blast in the Czech Republic. Moscow has consistently denied any involvement in these incidents.

The latest fire comes during a period of political shift in Bulgaria. Prime Minister Rumen Radev took power in April on a Kremlin-friendly platform, and in June, Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov announced that Sofia would stop sending state-owned military aid to Ukraine. However, Bulgaria's private arms industry remains a major supplier to Kyiv, continuing to export vast quantities of ammunition through third countries.

Security officials across Europe have warned of a sharp rise in Russian-backed sabotage operations targeting industrial and military sites. Similar suspicious fires and plots have recently been reported at defence facilities in Germany, Italy, and Estonia.