The families of 16 victims killed in a devastating blast at a Tennessee explosives plant have been notified of their loss, as investigators methodically work to clear the scene and gather evidence to determine what caused the tragedy in the tight-knit community.
In the coming days, authorities will slowly work their way through the debris-ridden plant “foot by foot,” ensuring each area of the site, approximately half a square mile, is safe for those at the scene.
“Due to the constraints that we have here … we’re literally having to take one foot at a time,” said Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis.
The thundering early morning blast at Accurate Energetic Systems reverberated across the surrounding community Friday, razing an entire building on the plant’s sprawling campus and leading to a painstaking search that ultimately found no survivors.
“We’re moving to recovery,” an emotional Davis said during a news conference Saturday, his voice trailing off at times.
With the investigation still in its early stages, the cause of the explosion has not yet been determined, according to Tyra Cunningham, assistant special agent in charge at the Nashville division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Explosives.
“Every effort is being made to conduct a thorough, methodical and science-based investigation to find the answers that led to this tragedy and the answers that this community deserves,” Cunningham said at a news conference Saturday evening.
Investigators are starting at the outside of the scene and working their way into where they believe the blast originated, said Brice McCracken, special agent in charge at the ATF’s National Center for Explosives Training and Research.
“Once we get inside there, then we’ll start looking at what’s remaining, what is in that scene,” he said. “The team will document every piece of evidence that we recover as we move from that outside to the inner explosive scene,” McCracken said.
Investigators are also pulling employment records and conducting controlled explosions, a source familiar with the investigation said.
ATF will ensure “that if criminal activity is involved, those responsible will be held accountable, and if it was accidental, that lessons have been learned to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again,” Cunningham said.
Meanwhile, the central Tennessee community that is home to the plant is grappling with a wave of grief as 16 of their families try to make sense of the tragedy.
“We need our communities to come together and understand that we’ve lost a lot of people. This don’t only affect those families, it runs deeper … this could be people that you grew up with,” Davis said.
Accurate Energetic Systems – a manufacturer of military and demolition explosives – employs around 80 people, including scores of local residents.
“This is their extended family,” Davis said Saturday.
Spread across 1,300 acres in a rural, wooded area, the site consists of five production buildings and a quality lab, according to a company profile from the nongovernmental Association of the United States Army, which lists AES as a sponsor.
Sammy Creech, a 78-year-old former employee who lives about 12 miles away from the facility, thought the explosion was an earthquake at first.
“The blast shook our house,” he told CNN Saturday.
Then, the chilling news came: about a dozen of Creech’s friends and former co-workers were at the facility when the blast happened. He described them as “good people” from neighboring counties.
“I might’ve slept three hours last night, off and on,” Creech said. “I could see their faces. I can hear their voices.”
The incident hit close to home for Creech, who used to eat lunch almost daily in the building where the explosion happened. Employees would change shifts around the time the explosion happened at 7:45 a.m., which is likely why there were so many in the building at the time, he said.
Creech said the victims were “really good friends” that he “really enjoyed just about all of them.”
“I’m really tired,” he said. “And I just feel sorry for all their families.”
Plant has faced safety and discrimination concerns
Safety concerns have previously been raised at the plant, which faced federal fines several years ago related to workplace safety practices, according to federal records.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $7,200 after a 2019 inspection found violations related to personal protective equipment, employee exposure to contaminants and inadequate safety training, among other citations. The company contested the findings and eventually reached a formal settlement, OSHA records show.
The company has reported 46 work-related injuries and no deaths since 2016, the earliest year on record. In 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, the company reported five injuries and one illness.
In 2021, Creech sued the company, alleging wrongful termination after being blamed for a fire that broke out at the facility the previous year. Creech alleged he had been discriminated against because of his age.
“There was a few times there was some slurs and comments about my age,” he said.
Creech, a diabetic, said the company did not like that he took snack breaks during the day to keep his blood sugar regulated. His supervisors were repeatedly told by plant management to replace Creech because he was “too old and too slow” to complete his job duties, the complaint filed in the lawsuit alleges.
“It hurt my feelings. It bothered me a great deal…how they were treating me,” he said.
The fire happened in October 2020, in the same building where Friday’s explosion happened, according to Creech, who said he was told days later he was being terminated for “poor housekeeping” that contributed to the fire. An investigation was conducted, but Creech said he was not asked for a statement.
“I tried to talk and reason with them…they seemed to enjoy the dismissal,” he said. “I was very ashamed that I was fired.”
The company disputed Creech’s claim that he was wrongfully terminated, and the case was dropped after mediation.
Friday’s tragedy has placed a heavy strain on the area’s close-knit community, many of whom have come together at vigils honoring the victims and praying for them.
“When you have small counties like this, we know each other … we love each other,” Davis said.
Among those believed to have died was Melissa Dawn Stanford, a 53-year-old production supervisor at the plant, her niece, Brittany Kirouac, told CNN in a statement Saturday. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation informed Kirouac they don’t believe her aunt could have survived, she said.
“To say our family is devastated is to put it lightly. We are honestly at a loss for words and grief is not linear. In the past 24 hours I have seen: anger, sadness, bargaining, denial, and acceptance,” Kirouac said.
“Not only from our family, but from the families who surrounded us waiting to hear news about their loved ones,” she continued. “At this time, we are just hoping to bring her home to say goodbye.”
Kirouac asked for prayers as her family, like so many others, attempts to “navigate these coming days, weeks, and months.”
On Saturday, local Janie Brown sought comfort at a prayer vigil at a chapel in McEwen, Tennessee. She said she knew and worked with some victims and their families.
“It’s going to be a sad, sad day in our community for a while,” she lamented, urging people to “give us time to heal, and pray for us.”
The focus now should be on the families, not on how the tragedy occurred, she said.
“The time is not to worry about why it happened. It’s to worry about who it happened to, the families,” said Brown, adding the victims “were loved by their families and by their communities … Everybody knew them.”
For some, the deadly blast brought back painful memories of another past disaster that swept the area years ago.
“Both our counties was hit pretty hard in ’21,” Davis said as he choked up, seemingly referring to devastating flooding that hit Humphreys County, killing 20 people and destroying or damaging hundreds of homes and businesses.
“We’ve already taken plans to prepare to take care of our loved ones and our families even more,” he said.
Counseling will be provided at schools starting Monday to help families involved, Davis said.
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