Fire at Bulgaria weapons depot prompts sabotage investigation

Bulgarian authorities are investigating a fire at a weapons-storage facility operated by arms manufacturer EMCO near Tsareva Livada, including the possibility that the incident involved sabotage.

The fire broke out during the night and was brought under control. No injuries were reported, according to the information available on Saturday. Images from the area showed flames illuminating the sky, but officials had not published a full assessment of damage or identified the cause.

The site belongs to EMCO, a Bulgarian defence company headed by arms dealer Emilian Gebrev. The company said the incident should be examined alongside a series of earlier explosions and fires at Bulgarian defence-industry facilities rather than treated as an isolated industrial accident.

That is the company’s position, not a completed finding by investigators. Bulgarian authorities said an inquiry was under way and had not publicly attributed responsibility when the incident was reported.

The Tsareva Livada fire was the second incident at an EMCO site within several weeks. EMCO said more than ten suspicious events had affected Bulgarian defence companies since 2011 and criticised the lack of final conclusions in several previous investigations.

Bulgarian prosecutors have previously alleged that Russian operatives were connected to attacks on EMCO depots containing arms intended for Ukraine and Georgia. In 2024, Bulgaria issued arrest warrants for six Russian nationals over earlier explosions. Moscow has denied involvement in sabotage operations in European countries.

The company’s history also includes the 2015 poisoning of Gebrev, his son and an EMCO executive. Bulgarian prosecutors linked that case to Russian military-intelligence officers, while Russia rejected the accusations. Those earlier cases provide investigative context but do not prove who, if anyone, was responsible for the latest fire.

Weapons depots carry an inherent risk because they store explosives and ammunition, making technical failure, poor handling and deliberate attack among the possibilities investigators must distinguish. A credible inquiry will require forensic examination of the ignition point, surveillance records, access logs and the condition of stored material.

The incident has a wider security dimension because Bulgaria’s defence industry has supplied ammunition and equipment to partners supporting Ukraine. Facilities in several European states have faced suspected sabotage, cyberattacks and surveillance since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, although attribution differs from case to case.

EMCO called for stronger protection of strategically important industrial sites. The Bulgarian authorities had not announced additional nationwide security measures or a final investigative conclusion at the time of the initial report.

Investigators also had to establish exactly what material was stored in the affected section and whether secondary explosions occurred. Neither EMCO nor the authorities initially released an inventory of the site. Without that information, reports about the military destination, value or quantity of any damaged ammunition would be speculative.