After a desperate but unsuccessful search for survivors, authorities in Middle Tennessee confirmed Saturday that an explosion at a munitions factory killed 16 people.
Saturday night’s announcement was the first time authorities provided a death toll following the explosion that ripped through the factory the day before. Earlier on Saturday, they said hope had all but disappeared after no survivors were found during searches.
And on Saturday evening, Sheriff Chris Davis of Humphreys County, Tennessee, said the doubt was gone. The families of 16 people were informed that their loved ones had been killed.
It breaks my heart to tell you this,” he said at a news conference, “but I think it can be said.”
Authorities initially said 19 people were missing, but three people who were at the facility were found to be alive and safe elsewhere. In some of these cases, investigators found personal items belonging to an individual in the rubble but were unable to immediately locate the person.
The investigation aimed to determine the cause of the explosion, which remained unclear on Saturday. Authorities described a careful search of the site. “We have to clean it foot by foot,” Sheriff Davis said. Investigators were also collecting evidence scattered further afield, with debris from the explosion found up to three kilometers away.
An emergency medical helicopter and an ambulance were nearby, an indication of the danger posed to the few hundred police officers who were searching what remained after the explosion, officials said.
Highly volatile materials at the site became even more unpredictable after being exposed to heat and pressure during the explosion, officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Saturday.
“We were already going slow, and we’re slowing things down even more,” Hickman County Sheriff Jason Craft said at a news conference. (The plant straddles Hickman and Humphreys counties.)
The explosion, which leveled one of the complex’s roughly half-dozen buildings, occurred around 7:45 a.m. Central time at the plant about 60 miles west of Nashville. Residents more than a dozen miles away said the explosion felt like it happened right outside their homes. Immediately following was a fiery expanse of mangled metal, debris and the scorched remains of vehicles parked outside.
The plant is operated by Accurate Energetic Systems, a company that produces explosives and demolition charges for the U.S. military and domestic blasting industry.
Workers in the part of the facility where the explosion occurred handled Pentolite and Comp-B explosives, employees said in interviews. They melted them in large kettles before pouring them into cast boosters, a type of small but sensitive explosive charge that can trigger larger explosives often used in commercial mining.
The explosion took place during the changeover between the first and third shifts, said one of the workers, Christopher José. The factory had detailed safety protocols for workers, employees said, including strict clothing requirements to mitigate static electricity hazards.
In addition to wondering what triggered the explosion, the close-knit community was beginning to deal with grief over the loss of relatives, friends and colleagues.
“You want me to be honest? This is hell,” said Sheriff Davis, who, in recurring news conferences, has emerged as the chief spokesman for both the official investigation and the anguished, bewildered community.
“It’s hell for us,” he said in an update Friday. “It’s hell for everyone involved.”
He had personal connections to some of the people directly affected, he said. “There are three families in there that I’m very close to.”
But he said his situation would not be unique, given the area’s small population and the extensive ties many residents have to the plant. “We know each other,” he said.
The area, a hilly, heavily wooded area of rural central Tennessee, had already experienced tragedy. In 2021, flash floods transformed creek beds, roads and neighborhoods into a rushing river in an instant, separating hugging loved ones from each other and sweeping away screaming neighbors. The floods killed 20 people and destroyed homes, businesses and churches.
This weekend, once again, a disaster sowed confusion and an agonizing wait to find out the extent of the death toll.
“We had the flood, and now we have this,” said Jacob Pointer, 21, working at a smoke shop in Waverly, the seat of Humphreys County and one of the towns hardest hit by the flood.
Like many others, he had a connection to the munitions factory, located near unincorporated Bucksnort, Tennessee, and the small town of McEwen. The husband of one of her colleagues is employed there. Friday was his day off.
Many knew that work involving explosives could be dangerous, Mr. Pointer said. One man was killed and four others injured in 2014 in an explosion at the same site, in an area operated by another company. Officials said several businesses were active there.
But Accurate Energetic Systems was a major employer in the area. “They feed a lot of families here,” Mr. Pointer said.
The plant employs about 75 people in five production centers and a laboratory, according to a page about the company published by the Association of the United States Army, which lists Accurate Energetic Systems as a sponsor. The 1,300-acre property serves all branches of the U.S. military, according to the association’s page, as well as international military and law enforcement agencies.
Since 2020, Accurate Energetic Systems has received tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts, mostly from the military, to supply explosives used in weapons work, government records show.
In a brief statement posted on the company’s website, Accurate Energetic Systems acknowledged the “tragic accident” and the ongoing investigation. “We express our gratitude to all first responders who continue to work tirelessly under difficult conditions,” the company said.
Authorities said Saturday that the company was cooperating with the investigation.
Jayd Begin, 33, and his boyfriend, Mr. Jose, 32, worked second shifts on the production line at the building that was destroyed. Both said they knew many of the workers who were likely among the dead.
“Just looking at the photos that were published online and in newspapers, like the cars in the parking lot, I was able to identify each one, who was driving what,” Ms. Begin said.
Some of the victims she knew had just started working at the facility, she said. One worker was around 20 years old. Another was about the age of Ms. Begin’s mother, who had grandchildren at home. And there was a woman who had just returned to work after taking time off to visit her son.
Aaron Krolik And Nick Pipitone reports contributed.
