Blast at Tennessee explosives plant leaves multiple dead, others missing
A powerful blast ripped through a military explosives manufacturing plant in rural Tennessee on Friday morning, rattling homes miles away and bringing emergency responders to the scene, authorities and residents said.
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Multiple people are dead, and several others are unaccounted
for after a blast on Friday morning in Tennessee at a military explosives
plant, according to law enforcement.
The explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems about 50 miles
(80 km) west of Nashville occurred at 7:45 a.m. local time (1245 GMT),
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told a press conference.
"We do have several people at this time that's
unaccounted for," he said, without providing precise figures. "We do
have some that are deceased."
Efforts to reach local authorities or the company were not
immediately successful.
Accurate Energetic Systems develops, manufactures and stores
explosives for "military, aerospace, and commercial demolition
markets," according to the company's website. The 1,300-acre headquarters
in Bucksnort, Tennessee, includes eight production buildings and a quality lab.
Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates told CNN the plant did not
have a history of safety problems, although there was a small ammunition
explosion there in 2014. That incident killed one person and injured three,
according to the Tennessean newspaper.
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