Fire breaks out at Emco arms plant in Bulgaria’s Gabrovo district
A fire broke out on the night of September 11 at an Emco warehouse used to store ammunition and gunpowder, with the blaze continuing into the morning of September 12.
This follows a blaze at an Emco plant in Bulgaria on August 10. In a statement at the time, the company said that human error could be ruled out as the cause.
Regarding the September 11 – 12 fire, the Interior Ministry said that there was no danger to the population and the employees of the company.
The manager of the plant, Slavcho Dimiev, confirmed to Bulgarian National Television that ammunition and gunpowder are stored in the warehouse, which is in the village of Gorna Varpishta, about four to five kilometres from the village of Tsareva Livada.
At the time the fire started, there was no one in the warehouse, while two security guards who had been in the area promptly quit the scene.
Residents in the area heard a series of explosions. The BG-Alert system was also activated.
Three fire brigade teams were sent to the scene. The area has been cordoned off.
Because of the risk of continued detonations, the terrain is being surveyed by drone to establish the exact extent of the damage and assess when teams can safely proceed to fully extinguish the fire.
On September 12, Ivailo Mirchev of the opposition Democratic Bulgaria coalition made a connection between what happened in Bulgaria and warnings about alleged Russian sabotage activity in Europe.
He cited as an example the Leipzig airport incident, about which, he said, Germany accused Russia of an attempted attack with a drone and explosives.
“A few days ago we warned in Parliament that what Russia is doing in Leipzig is also happening in Bulgaria,” Mirchev said.
There was an assassination attempt in 2015 against Emco owner Emilian Gebrev. Five years later, as public interest in the case in 2018 of the poisoning in the UK of Sergei Skripal, held to be the work of Russia, Bulgaria lodged charges in connection with the Gebrev case against three Russians – Denis Sergeev, Sergey Lyutenko, and Yegor Gordienko.
(Screenshot via BNT)
