A powerful fire, followed by a series of explosions, broke out late last night in an ammunition warehouse of the private arms company “EMKO“.
The incident is localized in the area of the village of Gorni Varpishta near Dryanovo, located between Tryavna and Tsareva Livada. Information about the incident was officially confirmed to the Bulgarian National Radio) and NOVA by Slavcho Dimiev, one of the company's directors. The report of the burning warehouse for gunpowder and ready-made ammunition was filed at around 23:20, after which a chain reaction began with a series of powerful detonations.
According to data from the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the regional governor Kristina Sidorova, at the moment no victims or injured people. At the time of the fire, the warehouses were uninhabited. The workers on shift at the production facility were evacuated promptly by buses, and the two security guards who were in the immediate vicinity managed to immediately leave the threatened area.
The flames quickly engulfed the facility, causing a series of explosions. Eyewitnesses report that the pillar of fire is so powerful that its lights can be clearly seen even from the Veliko Tarnovo region. The fire has begun to spread towards the villages of Gorni Varpishta and Buchukovtsi. The Mayor of Veliko Tarnovo Daniel Panov announced that it is A preventive inspection of the nearest villages in his municipality - Shemshevo, Bukovets and Pushevo - was carried out, and there were no active outbreaks or immediate threats.
Due to the serious risk of the incident, the authorities immediately activated the national early warning system BG-ALERT. The area has been completely cordoned off by police teams, and the road from the village of Donino in the direction of Tsareva Livada is closed to all vehicles. The Ministry of Interior reassures that there is no direct danger to the local population, as the nearest houses are located more than one kilometer away from the epicenter of the explosions.
Three specialized teams of the Regional Directorate “Fire Safety and Population Protection“ were immediately deployed to the scene. Due to the high risk of continued detonations, firefighters are not taking risky actions in the epicenter. Dawn is being awaited to conduct a survey of the terrain with a drone, with which assess the real situation and when it will be safe to begin active extinguishing.
In the morning hours, the Minister of the Interior is due to arrive at the scene of the incident Ivan Demerdzhiev and the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Lyubomir Nikolov. They will inspect the coordination between the services, and an official statement to the media and the public is scheduled for 11:00 today (Saturday, September 12) at the railway crossing in the village of Tsareva Livada.
The new incident occurs at a time of extreme tension, as this is the second large-scale explosion at an “EMKO“ facility in a little over a month. On August 10, a warehouse of the same company exploded near the nearby village of Belitsa (Tryavna municipality) after a truck caught fire on the territory of the plant. The incident then imposed a partial state of emergency. Paradoxically, specialized military teams from Ground forces completed the complete clearing of 566 acres around the Belitsa plant – where they collected 60 unexploded ordnance and 2 tons of debris – only three days ago (on September 8). The previous case is being intensively investigated under the supervision of the prosecutor's office and with the participation of the National Security Agency, with all hypotheses being examined, from a technical incident to deliberate sabotage. The causes of last night's new fire near Gorni Vrpishta are yet to be clarified.