On 10 August, a fire broke out at the EMCO plant near the village of Belitsa in Bulgaria, followed by secondary explosions of ammunition. Factory workers were taken away by bus, and residents of neighbouring settlements began to be evacuated as a precautionary measure. According to local authorities, there were no fatalities or injuries; the area around the plant remains cordoned off.<\/p>\n
Briefly about the main points<\/strong><\/p>\n The first explosions on the factory premises were heard this morning. The Mayor of Tryavna Dencho Minev<\/strong> He reported that, according to preliminary information, a lorry caught fire first, after which the blaze spread to part of the warehouses.<\/p>\n The fire reached the ammunition and caused a series of secondary explosions. A huge column of thick smoke rose above the area, visible from a considerable distance.<\/p>\n Access to the area around the factory has been blocked; fire crews, the police and other emergency services have been dispatched there. A checkpoint has been set up at the entrance to the village of Armyankovtsi.<\/p>\n The workers were taken away in the company\u2019s buses. The authorities began a precautionary evacuation of residents from neighbouring settlements due to the risk of further explosions and the fire spreading.<\/p>\n Following the explosions, the national emergency alert system, BG-ALERT, was activated. Local residents were advised to follow the police\u2019s instructions, stay away from the site, close their windows, wear protective masks where possible, and avoid going outside for the time being. There are plans to install a mobile air quality monitoring station in the Plachkivtsi area.<\/p>\n Later, Dencho Minev reported that the main fire at the ammunition depot had been brought under control. However, the blaze had spread to the wooded area near the facility, where firefighters are continuing to tackle the blaze.<\/p>\n An emergency response centre has been set up at the scene, involving the police, the fire service and local authorities. Members of the public will not be allowed onto the site until experts have confirmed that there is no risk of further explosions.<\/p>\n Bulgaria\u2019s Minister of the Interior, Ivan Demerdzhiev, stated that the exact cause would be determined once the emergency response operations had been completed. According to the authorities\u2019 preliminary assessment, the incident is likely to be of an internal nature; therefore, there are currently no grounds to suggest sabotage or an external attack.<\/p>\n The company is linked to the Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev. The Bulgarian public prosecutor\u2019s office has previously investigated a number of explosions at defence industry facilities regarding the possible involvement of Russian agents, in particular incidents involving the destruction of products intended for export to Ukraine and Georgia. These previous investigations do not establish a link with the fire near Belitsa.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The main fire at the EMCO warehouse was brought under control following explosions of ammunition. Emergency services are extinguishing the fire in the woods near the factory.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":207433346,"featured_media":26931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_description":"\u041e\u0441\u043d\u043e\u0432\u043d\u0443 \u043f\u043e\u0436\u0435\u0436\u0443 \u043d\u0430 \u0441\u043a\u043b\u0430\u0434\u0456 EMCO \u043b\u0456\u043a\u0432\u0456\u0434\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043b\u0438 \u043f\u0456\u0441\u043b\u044f \u0432\u0438\u0431\u0443\u0445\u0456\u0432 \u0431\u043e\u0454\u043f\u0440\u0438\u043f\u0430\u0441\u0456\u0432. \u0420\u044f\u0442\u0443\u0432\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0438 \u0433\u0430\u0441\u044f\u0442\u044c \u0432\u043e\u0433\u043e\u043d\u044c \u0443 \u043b\u0456\u0441\u0456 \u043f\u043e\u0431\u043b\u0438\u0437\u0443 \u0437\u0430\u0432\u043e\u0434\u0443.","rank_math_title":"\u0415\u0432\u0430\u043a\u0443\u0430\u0446\u0456\u044f \u0447\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437 \u0432\u0438\u0431\u0443\u0445\u0438 \u043d\u0430 \u0437\u0430\u0432\u043e\u0434\u0456 EMCO \u0432 \u0411\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0430\u0440\u0456\u0457","rank_math_focus_keyword":"EMCO","td_subtitle":"","subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[805619],"tags":[805624],"class_list":["post-26932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-805624"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207433346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26933,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26932\/revisions\/26933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
How did the fire start and why were there explosions?<\/h2>\n
The area was cordoned off and an emergency alert was sent to residents<\/h2>\n
The main fire has been brought under control, but firefighters are still putting out the blaze in the forest<\/h2>\n
The authorities are treating the incident as an accident rather than an act of sabotage<\/h2>\n