McEWEN: Officials are still investigating a blast that leveled an explosives plant in rural Tennessee. There are no survivors of the incident, said Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis on Saturday (Oct 11), with 18 people unaccounted for.
The explosion Friday morning at Accurate Energetic Systems, which supplies and researches explosives for the military, scattered debris over at least an 800-metre area and was felt by residents more than 24 kilometres away, said Davis.
Aerial footage showed the company’s hilltop location smoldering and smoky on Friday, with just a mass of twisted metal, burned-out shells of cars, and an array of debris left behind.
Davis, who described it as one of the worst scenes he’s ever seen.
“What we need right now is we need our communities to come together and understand that we’ve lost a lot of people,” he said.
The company’s website says it processes explosives and ammunition at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area, 97 kilometres southwest of Nashville.
PLANT SUPPLIES MUNITIONS AND EXPLOSIVES
The company has been awarded numerous military contracts, largely by the US Army and Navy, to supply different types of munitions and explosives, according to public records. The products range from bulk explosives to landmines and small breaching charges, including C4.
The US has a long history of deadly accidents at workplaces, including the Monongah coal mine explosion that killed 362 men and boys in West Virginia in 1907. Several high-profile industrial accidents in the 1960s helped lead President Richard Nixon to sign a law creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration the next year.
In 2019, Accurate Energetic Systems faced several small fines from the US Department of Labor for violations of policies meant to protect workers from exposure to hazardous chemicals, radiation, and other irritants, according to citations from OSHA.
In 2014, an explosion occurred at another ammunition facility in the same small community, killing one person and injuring at least three others.
