A satellite image showed the devastating aftermath of the blast at a Tennessee explosives factory that police have confirmed left ‘no survivors’.
Eighteen people were missing after the explosion at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant around 7.50am local time Friday but police confirmed at a Saturday press conference they were now looking for remains.
It was the second blast at the explosives factory site – about an hour southwest of Nashville, near the town of Bucksnort – in 12 years.
In April 2014, an explosion at the rural Tennessee facility killed Rodney Edwards and injured four others, WSMV reported.
That fatal incident happened in an area where shotgun ammunition was stored, the Humphreys County Sheriff said then.
His widow Kathryn Edwards told WSMV her husband Rodney ‘worked seven days a week’ and ‘would go in any time he was called’.
About a dozen people were inside the building, which was ‘pretty much destroyed’ in the blast, according to The Tennessean.
The explosion, which ignited two fires in an area operated by Rio Ammunition, also severely injured Joey Clark.
A satellite image showed the devastating aftermath of the blast at a Tennessee explosives factory
The Accurate Energetic Systems plant before the explosion
Clark lost his left eye and two fingers in the blast.
He said: ‘I was walking in the door where it flamed up.
‘I stopped to go get Rodney. I was going to turn around. I thought he was behind me.
That stop, thinking about him, probably saved my life.’
Five years ago, a ‘costly and dangerous fire’ also broke out at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant, according to court filings seen by The Tennessean.
James Creech, an employee in the company’s maintenance department who maintained and completed quality control tests on the boilers at their McEwen facility, filed the suit after being terminated due to the fires.
The company claimed Creech’s ‘failure to perform his job duties in a responsible manner contributed to a costly and dangerous fire at AES’s facility’ on October 30, 2020.
The explosion happened around at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant around 7.50am local time Friday
The blast took place about an hour southwest of Nashville, near the town of Bucksnort
Creech’s attorneys said he ‘was never interviewed regarding the fire, his actions or the deficiencies of the building and/or building materials that were the precipitating cause of the fire.’
The lawsuit was settled after mediation.
One year earlier, the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected the plant after two employees suffered ‘seizure events’ prior to their shifts for the day, and a third employee had also seized at home that same morning.
The inspection found that five employees experienced ‘central nervous system impairment’ and had been potentially exposed to the toxic chemical cyclonite.
Accurate Energetic Systems contested the five ‘serious’ violations found and settled a lawsuit with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said during a press conference on Saturday that there were ‘no survivors’ recovered from Friday’s explosion.
He said: ‘As we get into this, we find it even more devastating than what we thought initially.’
Davis said that the scene of the blast was ‘more volatile as time has gone.’
