{"id":72721,"date":"2025-10-10T23:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T23:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/72721\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T23:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T23:18:08","slug":"blast-at-tennessee-explosives-plant-leaves-19-people-missing-and-feared-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/72721\/","title":{"rendered":"Blast at Tennessee explosives plant leaves 19 people missing and feared dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

A blast that levelled an explosives plant in the US state of Tennessee has left 19 people missing and feared dead, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Humphreys County sheriff Chris Davis said the blast at Accurate Energetic Systems, which supplies the military, was one of the most devastating scenes he has ever seen.<\/p>\n

He said multiple people were killed but declined to say how many, referring to the 19 missing as \u201csouls\u201d because officials were still speaking to family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to describe. It\u2019s gone,\u201d Mr Davis said of the building.<\/p>\n

People reported hearing and feeling the explosion from miles away.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s website says it makes and tests explosives at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area, about 60 miles south-west of Nashville.<\/p>\n

Mr Davis said investigators are trying to determine what happened and could not say what caused the explosion. The investigation could take days, the sheriff said.<\/p>\n

Aerial footage of the aftermath by WTVF-TV showed the explosion had apparently obliterated one of the facility\u2019s hilltop buildings, leaving only smouldering wreckage and the burnt-out shells of vehicles.<\/p>\n

\"DebrisDebris after the explosion at the plant in Tennessee (WTVF-TV via AP)\n<\/p>\n

There is no further danger of explosions, and the scene was under control by Friday afternoon, according to Grey Collier, a spokesperson for the Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n

Emergency crews were initially unable to enter the plant because of continuing detonations, Hickman County advanced EMT David Stewart said by phone.<\/p>\n

Accurate Energetic Systems, based in nearby McEwen, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tragedy for our community,\u201d McEwen mayor Brad Rachford said.<\/p>\n

\"DebrisDebris left by the blast in Hickman County, Tennessee (WTVF-TV via AP)\n<\/p>\n

Residents in Lobelville, a 20-minute drive from the scene, said they felt their homes shake and some people captured the loud boom of the explosion on their home cameras.<\/p>\n

The blast rattled Gentry Stover from his sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,\u201d he said. \u201cI live very close to Accurate and I realised about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.\u201d<\/p>\n

State representative Jody Barrett, a Republican from the neighbouring town of Dickson, was worried about the possible economic impact because the plant is a key employer in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live probably 15 miles as the crow flies and we absolutely heard it at the house,\u201d Mr Barrett said. \u201cIt sounded like something going through the roof of our house.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A blast that levelled an explosives plant in the US state of Tennessee has left 19 people missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-72721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}