Bulgaria probes ammunition site fire owner calls sabotage

Bulgarian authorities are investigating the cause of an overnight fire at an ammunition storage facility operated by private defence company EMCO near the village of Gorni Varpishta in central Bulgaria, roughly 170km east of Sofia. The blaze set off a series of explosions, though no one was injured.

Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said authorities are not ruling out outside interference in the incident. EMCO said the fire was the result of sabotage and stated that human error had been completely ruled out, though it did not identify a possible perpetrator.

Second such incident in a month

This marks the second fire and explosion at an EMCO ammunition warehouse in the same area within the past month. The company said the facility that burned this time had not been in use for months and had passed an inspection just 20 days earlier confirming full regulatory compliance. EMCO pointed to a string of similar incidents at Bulgarian defence companies since 2011, describing the latest as part of an ongoing pattern of sabotage against the country's defence industry.

The firm called on Bulgaria, as the EU and Nato member most affected by such acts, to join collective efforts to prevent and counter these attacks.

EMCO's weapons are used by Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. The company is run by Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, who Bulgarian prosecutors say has previously been targeted by Russian agents, including a 2015 poisoning attempt against Gebrev, his son and another employee that led to in-absentia charges against three Russian nationals.

Bulgaria remains a significant arms supplier to Ukraine, though while the state has recently paused government-owned arms transfers, private Bulgarian defence firms continue supplying weapons. The incident adds to a broader pattern of suspicious fires and attacks at European defence facilities, from Italy to Estonia, which several affected countries have blamed on Russia.