Multiple people are dead after a massive explosion erupted at a Tennessee bomb factory early Friday morning.
The blast went off at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant, located about 60 miles southwest of Nashville near the town of Bucksnort, around 7.50am local time.
The explosion took place during a regular shift change, meaning there were fewer people inside than normal, according to WSMV. At least 19 employees are still unaccounted for.
The initial blast was so enormous that locals reported hearing and feeling it from dozens of miles away.
The extent of the damage remains unclear at this time, but officials said it encompassed an entire building located on the site.
Footage from the scene showed a burning debris field with smoke billowing into the air. Several cars and buildings appear to have been damaged in the blast.
Emergency crews are on site and have urged the public to stay away as they work the scene. Their main concern is the potential for secondary explosions.
There was an explosion at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant in April 2014. That blast left one person dead and three others injured.
First responders have rushed to aid those impacted by the explosion.
‘Right now we’re prioritizing people that are involved, their families and trying to be very compassionate toward them,’ Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said.
The Hickman County Sheriff’s Office has asked locals to avoid the area to allow responders to do their work.
Emergency responders were not yet able to go in to the plant because there continue to be explosions, Hickman County Advanced EMT David Stewart told AP.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation has also shut down State Route 230, just north of I-40, as first responders work the scene.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has also been dispatched to the plant.
Officials expect to the investigation to take several days.
‘We’re at the beginning stages of all of this,’ Hickman County Sheriff Jason Craft said Friday morning. ‘We’re getting information minute-by-minute and we’re going to continue to build on that and do what we need to do.’
He urged the community to ‘keep everyone in your prayers as we go through this [over] the next few days.’
Sherriff Davis echoed: ‘We’ve got a very big investigation. This is not going to be something that we’re going to be – like a car wreck or something like that – that we are just going to clean up the debris and leave.’
The blast was heard from miles away, causing shelves and windows to rattle, residents claimed.
Beyonica Holt, whose residence is located roughly 15 miles from the factory, said she ‘thought we were at war’ and that ‘I was going to die.’
‘I was standing in my bedroom. It shook the whole house. I thought it was going to blow out my windows – it didn’t, but that’s how big it was,’ she told The Tennessean.
Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates said his office has received multiple calls from residents claiming that they felt the ground shake.
‘It’s an unfortunate incident. It was felt around our county,’ the mayor said. ‘We just pray that the good Lord keeps their hand on the families that’s involved.’
Residents in Lobelville, a more than a 20-minute drive from the military explosives manufacturing plant, said they felt their homes shake.
‘I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,’ Gary Stover, who claimed the blast rattled him from his sleep, told AP. ‘I live very close to Accurate and I realized about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.’
A resident in Santa Fe, Tennessee – nearly 40 miles away from the plant – also claimed on social media that houses shook in their neighborhood.
Accurate Energetic Systems was established in 1980 and manufacturers explosives and ammunition.
Public records show that the company sold numerous types of weapons to the US military, including dynamite, landmines and explosive powder for large-caliber shells.
The plant ‘is dedicated to the development, manufacture, handling, and storage of high-quality energetic products utilized in both defense and commercial markets,’ according to its website.
It also specializes in creating high-grade explosives for demolition and makes ‘linear shaped charges to claymore mines,’ the website added.
The facility, which sits on 1,300 acres, is comprised of a quality control lab and eight production buildings that manufacture, store and research explosives for ‘military, aerospace, and commercial demolition’ markets.
Some of the products listed for sale are designed by the Department of Defense and approved for use for foreign military units, police forces and commercial customers.
The company also uses the sprawling campus to test explosives, according to it’s website, measuring the velocity of explosions as well as their impact on surrounding areas under varying environmental conditions.
The website says that facilities can safely accommodate explosives with up to 35 pounds of ‘net explosive weight,’ and conducts daily tests.
A blast went off at the plant 11 years ago, killing one person. There were roughly a dozen people in the building at the time of the explosion.
The 2014 explosion occurred in a building that was operated by Rio Ammunition and made ammunition for law enforcement and the military, as well as hunting.
The Rio Ammunition building was ‘pretty much destroyed’ during that explosion, officials said at the time.
Accurate Energetic Systems announced a $9.7 million expansion in 2020 that brought 80 new jobs to the area, according to The Tennessean.
They received a state grant of $601,000 from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for the expansion, and brought two out-of-state businesses to the area through acquisitions.
