The Bulgarian government has launched an investigation into a fresh fire at a weapons storage facility operated by EMCO, with the aim of discovering possible sabotage and a potential link to a similar blaze at another company depot last month.
The fire broke out near the village of Tsareva Livada, lighting up the night sky, but no injuries were reported.
The Interior Minister, Ivan Demerdzhiev, who disclosed this on Saturday, said that the fire had been brought under control, to prevent spreading to other locations.
Demerdzhiev added that investigators have started examining whether the incident was connected to previous fires at EMCO and other Bulgarian defence facilities.
“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 journalists.
He added: “We are not ruling out outside interference.”
The development has renewed scrutiny of possible Russian involvement in attacks on Bulgaria’s defence industry, following a series of unexplained explosions and fires at arms depots linked to Bulgarian arms trader Emilian Gebrev.
EMCO, which is owned by Gebrev, later declared that Saturday’s fire was the result of sabotage, although the company did not name any suspect.
“There is no reason to assume that this case is any different,” the company said, citing more than 10 similar incidents at Bulgarian defence firms since 2011.
The company’s production manager, Slavcho Dimiev, confirmed the fire at the storage facility, saying it mainly contained ammunition, including a small quantity of medium-calibre rounds.
EMCO also accused Bulgarian authorities of failing to provide adequate protection for defence installations, saying none of the more than 10 previous incidents involving major defence companies had been conclusively investigated.
The company said the warehouse had been inspected seven times since the beginning of the year, with the latest inspection conducted about 20 days before the fire.
Demerdzhiev, however, raised questions about the security arrangements at the facilities, including the conditions under which explosives were stored and how the warehouses were guarded.
The latest incident comes weeks after an explosion and fire at another EMCO weapons depot in western Bulgaria, heightening concerns over the safety and security of the country’s arms-storage facilities.
Bulgarian prosecutors have previously accused Russian operatives of targeting Gebrev and his facilities. In 2024, the country issued arrest warrants for six Russian citizens accused of involvement in the destruction of EMCO arms depots between 2011 and 2020.
The depots stored munitions destined for export to Ukraine and Georgia.
Prosecutors had also cited suspected links between the Bulgarian depot explosions, an alleged attempt to poison Gebrev in 2015 and explosions at ammunition depots in the Czech Republic in 2014.
Moscow has rejected the allegations.
The latest fire has therefore reopened a sensitive chapter in Bulgaria’s security investigations, with authorities yet to establish whether Saturday’s incident was an accident, deliberate sabotage or part of a wider pattern of attacks on the country’s defence industry.
The incident also comes amid political tensions over Bulgaria’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war, adding further sensitivity to the investigation.