The families of the 16 victims killed in the devastating blast at a Tennessee explosive plant have been notified, authorities said at a Saturday news conference.
No one has been found alive in the search and investigators are working through the scene foot by foot, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said.
“At this time, we have not located any survivors, and we are making the assumption that all are deceased at this point,” he said Saturday evening.
Earlier, officials thought 18 people were missing because their vehicles and personal items were at the facility, but they were later able to locate two people off site, officials said.
“We’re moving to recovery,” Davis said with emotion during a news conference one day after the blast, his voice trailing off at times.
“As we get into this, we find it even more devastating than what we thought initially,” he added.
Early Friday, the thundering blast at Accurate Energetic Systems reverberated across a tight-knit community, razing an entire building on the plant’s sprawling campus.
For some, it brought back painful memories of past disasters that swept the area.
“Both our counties was hit pretty hard in ’21,” Davis said as he choked up during a news conference Saturday night. He appeared to refer to widespread flooding that hit Humphreys County, killing 20 people in the city of Waverly and destroying 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, he said.
The recovery effort was being made “more volatile” with the presence of ordnance at the site, and investigators were working with the FBI to use cell phone technology to figure out what happened at the time of the explosion, Davis said. Investigators were also using DNA to try to identify the remains of victims.
Melissa Dawn Stanford, a 53-year-old production supervisor at the plant, is believed to have died, 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.”
Davis said more than 300 people had searched “almost every square inch” of the plant. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ elite National Response Team, which provides a range of specialists who investigate bombings and wildfires, is part of the complicated recovery operation.
“I never want to give up hope. Hope’s always been my heart, but I don’t want to give false hope either,” Davis said.
“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, noting one victim was a childhood friend of his.
The explosion occurred during an early shift at Accurate Energetic Systems, a manufacturer of military and demolition explosives that employs scores of local residents.
“Prayers are needed … our hearts are broken for the families and for the loved ones that lost their lives,” Wendall Stinson, the manufacturer’s CEO, said alongside officials Friday.
The blast triggered a series of smaller explosions, officials said, and the cause is still under investigation.
“While this investigation is still in this early stage, at this point, the cause of this explosion has not yet been determined,” Tyra Cunningham, assistant special agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Explosives, said at a news conference Saturday evening.
Brice McCracken, special agent in charge at the ATF’s National Center for Explosives Training and Research, said investigators are starting at the outside of the scene and working their way into where they believe the blast originated.
“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.”
Sheriff Davis said the investigation will take time because they have to ensure each area is safe for those working at the scene.
“Due to the constraints that we have here … we’re literally having to take one foot at a time,” he said.
The debris-ridden area spans at least half a square mile, officials said, adding debris was also found more than two miles away from the plant.
Officials will be on site Saturday detonating explosives because “chemicals are more unstable” than previously thought, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The source added the timing of these controlled explosions is unknown but will be audible to people in the area, noting the point is to ensure the area is safe.
Investigators are also pulling employment records, according to the source.
Here’s what we know as the investigation continues:
Early morning blast
The explosion happened around 7:45 a.m. local time, waking residents for miles around.
“I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,” Gentry Stover told The Associated Press, explaining how he was jolted awake.
It took him only moments to piece what happened together. “I live very close to Accurate (Energetic Systems), and I realized about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.”
Officials said the explosion was felt as far as 15 miles away, but Cody Warren, who lives more than 20 miles from the plant, told CNN the noise woke him and at first he thought lightning had struck his house.
“I went outside and could still hear the ring of the sound off in the distance. I thought maybe it was an earthquake or a meteor explosion,” Warren told CNN.
Closer to the plant, charred debris and mangled vehicles were spread across a vast area. Davis called it “the most devastating scene that I’ve seen in my career.”
Residents who find debris are being asked to call their local sheriff “so trained personnel can respond safely.” Officials are requesting everyone to avoid the area near the plant while emergency teams do their job.
It’s unclear how many people were inside the plant when the explosion happened, Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates said.
“It’s going to be an investigation that’s probably going to go on for days,” Bates said.
The ATF and Hickman and Humphreys counties’ sheriff’s offices will co-lead the investigation, which will also include the FBI, the officials said.
In a statement Friday evening, AES called the explosion a “tragic accident” and said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, coworkers, and community members affected by this incident.”
Investigators using cell records to help determine who was at the plant
As of Friday evening, authorities were still working to contact some of the next-of-kin of employees who were believed to have been inside the building at the time of the explosion, a law enforcement source told CNN.
As part of the ongoing effort to determine which company employees may have been among the victims, the source said authorities are now also conducting analysis of records from nearby cell phone towers.
The sophisticated process involves comparing the cell phone numbers of employees with local cell phone tower registration records to help pinpoint the geographical location of a device at the time of the explosion.
Davis noted people in the community were undergoing a “gauntlet of emotions” as many awaited word of loved ones.
“I understand that some families get mad. I understand that some people get upset. … We’re doing the very best we can to take care of this,” Davis said.
‘A well-loved company in the area’
Accurate Energetic Systems makes “various high explosive compositions and specialty products” for the US military and industrial markets, according to the company’s Facebook page. The AES plant employs around 80 people, the Hickman County mayor said.
“This is their extended family,” Davis said Saturday.
The facility is spread across 1,300 acres in a rural, wooded area off Interstate 40, roughly 60 miles west of Nashville near the border of Hickman and Humphreys Counties, officials said.
The relatively remote area where the plant is located is typically patrolled by smaller law enforcement departments, so other agencies have volunteered resources for support, a source told CNN.
The site consists of five production buildings and “a quality lab for product evaluation and analysis,” according to a company profile from the nongovernmental Association of the United States Army, which lists AES as a sponsor.
Last month, the Department of Defense awarded AES a nearly $120 million contract “for the procurement of TNT.”
Tennessee state Sen. Kerry Roberts told CNN the company is a beloved employer for many, with workers often seen at community events sporting baseball caps with the company’s logo.
“It is a well-loved company in the area,” Roberts said. “This is going to have a devastating impact on quite a few families.”
