page_title: 2014 Gorni Lom explosions
section_title: Timeline and background
hierarchical_section_title: 2014 Gorni Lom explosions / Timeline and background
caption_attribution_description: English: Location map of Bulgaria Equirectangular projection, N/S stretching 130&#160;%. Geographic limits of the map: N: 44.4° N S: 41.1° N W: 22.1° E E: 28.9° E
context_page_description: The 2014 Gorni Lom explosions were a series of explosions that began on the afternoon of October 1, 2014, at 16:59 pm local time at the former Midzhur Ammo Plant in the village of Gorni Lom, in Bulgaria's northwestern Vidin Province. The series of blasts completely destroyed the factory, killing 13 men and 2 women who were inside and injuring 3 others who were some distance away. As a result of the blast, October 3 was declared a day of national mourning in the country.
context_section_description: The main explosion took place at 16:59 pm local time, with a large secondary blast taking place at 21:45 pm. The approximately 15 people who were working inside the factory at the time of the first explosion are presumed to have died instantly, while 3 female workers in the vicinity of the complex suffered injuries from flying glass and shrapnel. Authorities estimated around 10 tonnes of highly explosive chemicals were stored at the site, in addition to the weapons being dismantled. According to Nikola Nikolov, the head of the interior ministry's civil defense force, the blasts were powerful enough to completely destroy the main buildings in the plant, leaving huge craters the size of football fields behind and sending debris flying up to a kilometer away. The workers were reportedly dismantling old Greek mines at the time of the accident in Gorni Lom, approximately 145 km northwest of Bulgaria's capital Sofia.
  The same plant had received several urgent citations by authorities just two months prior to the accident, notifying the owners of outdated equipment, improperly stored explosives and a larger amount of munitions at the site than it could safely handle. The same plant suffered two blasts in 2007 and 2010 that injured a total of 6 people and flattened two separate buildings. In the aftermath of the disaster labor minister Yordan Hristoskov vowed to never allow the factory to reopen, placing the future of around 150 jobs in question and prompting condemnation from local residents.
  This was Bulgaria's tenth such accident since 1979 and the second one in just two months, after a blast at a similar plant in Kostenets injured 10 people on August 8. An explosion at another facility near Sliven killed 3 people in 2012, and in 2008 a series of huge blasts at an arms depot near Sofia injured 3, forced the closure of Sofia Airport and registered as a 3.2 tremor on seismographs.
caption: Location of the explosions in relation to Sofia
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