19 people missing after blast levels Tennessee explosives facility
Nineteen people are missing after an explosion Friday at a military explosives manufacturing plant in Tennessee.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said four or five people were taken to a nearby hospital after the massive explosion that leveled a factory, and several of them died.
“There’s nothing to describe, it’s gone,” he said.
The facility in Bucksnort, Tennessee – about 90 miles southwest of Nashville – specializes in the development, manufacturing, handling and storage of explosives. The cause of the explosion remains unclear.
Aerial video of the scene showed charred debris, burning vehicles and some remains of the facility, which is owned by Accurate Energetic Systems.
Sheriff Davis, visibly emotional during his first press briefing of the day, refused to say exactly how many people died.
But he noted that the plant was operational when the explosion occurred and that secondary explosions forced first responders to keep their distance from the site.
Workers who had just started their day “could now be missing or deceased.”
“A lot of times when I’m faced with these types of situations, I refer to them as more than just one person…we’re missing 19 souls,” Davis said.
In a second briefing hours later, Davis confirmed that 19 people were still missing and that the explosion had occurred in a large building. It threw debris over a half square mile, he added.
“It was a massive enough explosion that I can tell you that the people of Waverly felt and heard that explosion,” he said, referring to a town about 15 miles northwest of the facility.
Davis declined to answer whether he thought the explosion was accidental or intentional, saying “we have to make the worst assumption to find out the truth.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said in a social media post that his office was monitoring the ongoing situation and called it a “tragic incident.” State and local authorities were working with federal agencies to respond to the explosion.
Casey Stapp, director of media relations at TriStar Health in nearby Dickson, said two walk-in patients were treated for “minor injuries” from the explosion and released.
A third walk-in patient, Stapp said, is still being treated for minor injuries.
Local media said patients were also being treated at other area hospitals and residents living more than 20 miles from the site could feel the explosion.
The plant, which covers approximately 1,300 acres of land, produced and stored C-4, TNT and other high-grade military and commercial explosives.
Accurate Energetics Systems has now ceased operations, the sheriff said. The company is estimated to have employed around 75 people.
“They’re focused on their families, their employees,” Davis said.
The explosion took place on the border of Hickman and Humphreys counties and prompted a massive response from local and federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The FBI and ATF secured the scene and declared it stable, Davis said.
Officers are expected to remain on scene for several days with a number of teams trying to figure out what happened, Davis said, promising a “slow and methodical” investigation.
Another explosion took place at the same location in 2014, at a unit operated by a company called Rio Ammunition.
Reports at the time said one man was killed and three others injured in the explosion.
Mixing explosives and filling munitions is a “high risk, low probability industry” when properly regulated, Ken Cross, former president of the Institute of Explosives Engineers, told the BBC.
“Competent personnel are essential, and the majority of organizations provide relevant training and supervision to their explosives workers,” he added.
He also noted that, globally, explosions are reported at factories most weeks, but these often occur in places where fireworks are produced or “which could be considered to have less than ideal explosives safety legislation and official oversight.”
