Another fire at Emco arms plant in Bulgaria: Interior Minister hints at shifting blame on to the company
Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev, commenting on September 12 on a fire at an Emco arms plant – the second since one in early August – appeared to hint at shifting blame on to the company.
This is in spite of the fact that Emco, reacting to the fire in August, ruled out human error, while opposition parties have linked the fires to Russian sabotage of arms plants supplying production to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s illegal invasion.
Demerdzhiev, who serves in a government that opposes military aid to Ukraine, was commenting at the scene of the fire, which broke out on the night of September 11 and continued into September 12.
“There is a neglect of the conditions under which explosives and ammunition are stored,” Demerdzhiev said.
“There is also neglect of the method of security – we have one incident, we have a second, this activity is a serious enough source of danger to neglect measures in any way,” he said.
“We will inspect every warehouse on the territory of the country and will issue the relevant timetables. Since the owners cannot take such measures and it is obvious that violations are being committed, the state will do what is necessary.”
There were no injuries and the situation was generally under control, Demerdzhiev said.
At this stage, there was no danger to the other warehouses, nor is the fire spreading beyond the territory of the warehouses, he said. Demerdzhiev said that one warehouse had caught fire, one warehouse had exploded.
“An investigation into the first case is underway – extremely serious, extremely detailed, without ruling out any version. The same will be done at the moment,” he said.
“We are even checking cases back in time to possibly look for some connection or a similar approach. All hypotheses are on the table and we are examining them carefully and in detail,” Demerdzhiev said.
Democratic Bulgaria (DB) will once again call for a parliamentary hearing involving the heads of the security services and the establishment of an ad hoc committee, as well as demand answers from the Prime Minister and the Consultative Council on National Security (CCNS) regarding the explosions at the Emco facilities, DB MP Ivailo Mirchev said on September 12.
“Last night, Emco ammunition warehouses were once again burning and exploding—just 33 days after the previous blast,” Mirchev said.
“A few days ago, Germany accused Russia of attempting a drone and explosive attack at Leipzig Airport. For months, Nato and Western intelligence agencies have been warning that Russia’s sabotage campaign across Europe is expanding,” he said.
“We recently warned in Parliament that what Russia is doing in Leipzig is also happening in Bulgaria. We called for a meeting of the CCNS, a government response, and an explanation of how our security services are countering Russian sabotage operations. We received none of that. Instead, we were met with silence and inaction.
“Today, Bulgarian military warehouses are exploding again—courtesy of compromised Bulgarian security services and the Prosecutor’s Office, and carried out by the Russian GRU,” 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)
