In Bulgaria, near the village of Tsareva Livada, a fire broke out overnight at an ammunition warehouse operated by the company EMCO, reportedly illuminating the night sky over the area. No casualties were reported as a result of the incident. According to Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev, the fire was brought under control, and the investigation is ongoing: prosecutors intend to examine previous cases of similar fires at the company's warehouses and at other facilities in order to establish any possible link between them. The incident occurred just weeks after an explosion and fire at another EMCO site in the west of the country, which, in the assessment of observers, makes the situation at Bulgaria's defense warehouses unusually tense.
What was stored at the burned facility
EMCO's production facilities manager Slavo Dimiev confirmed that the warehouse primarily stored ammunition, including a small quantity of medium-caliber cartridges. The company EMCO manages the assets of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, who had previously publicly confirmed arms supplies to Ukraine. It is precisely this factor, according to analysts, that turns every incident at the company's warehouses into a matter of not only domestic but also international resonance.
Sabotage theory and claims against the authorities
EMCO subsequently stated outright that the fire was the result of sabotage, citing more than ten similar incidents at Bulgarian defense enterprises since 2011. The company did not name any suspects, but emphasized that it sees no reason to consider the current case an exception. EMCO also accused the authorities of being unable to properly protect defense facilities and noted that not a single investigation into more than ten such incidents has been completed to date, and that the warehouse itself had been inspected seven times since the beginning of the year — the last inspection taking place just 20 days before the fire.
Context: the Gebrev case and the link to Russian operatives
In 2024, Bulgaria issued arrest warrants for six Russian citizens accused of involvement in the destruction of EMCO's ammunition warehouses between 2011 and 2020; the warehouses stored ammunition intended for export to Ukraine and Georgia. Prosecutors claimed a possible link between the explosions in Bulgaria, the 2015 attempted poisoning of Emilian Gebrev, and the 2014 explosions at ammunition warehouses in Vrbetice, Czech Republic — the same warehouses also stored Gebrev's ammunition. Moscow has consistently denied these allegations.
Second incident in a month
The current fire is already the second at Bulgarian weapons warehouses in a short period. On August 10, a powerful explosion rocked a military factory near the village of Belitsa in the Travno municipality: ammunition detonated there, and the fire spread into the surrounding forests. The authorities evacuated populated areas and activated the BG-ALERT warning system. The recurrence of such events within a single month strengthens questions about the state of security and control at the country's defense facilities.
Contradictory data
The original sources contain an inconsistency in the description of the preceding incident. On the one hand, it is stated that the fire in Tsareva Livada occurred "a few weeks after an explosion and fire at another EMCO weapons warehouse in western Bulgaria." On the other hand — the incident described as the second in a month is the August 10 explosion at the military factory near the village of Belitsa (Travno municipality). It is unclear whether the "western Bulgarian EMCO warehouse" and the "military factory near Belitsa" are the same facility or two separate events; this is not distinguished in the open data. Moreover, the name of the village is spelled differently in various formulations (Tsareva Livada / Tsarevaya Livada), and the exact date of the current fire is not explicitly recorded in the sources — it is inferred from the publication date (September 12, 2026). Until the investigation is completed, both versions remain parallel.
