Video from the scene showed a burning debris field with smoke billowing into the air.
WASHINGTON — A powerful and deadly blast ripped through a military explosives manufacturing plant in rural Tennessee on Friday morning, rattling homes miles away and bringing emergency responders to the scene, authorities and residents said.
The explosion happened at Accurate Energetic Systems near the town of Bucksnort, about 60 miles southwest of Nashville, the Hickman County Sheriff’s Office said. The agency asked people in a social media post to avoid the area to allow responders to do their work.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis confirmed in a news conference on Friday that there was a “very devastating blast” around 7:45 a.m. local time. Davis said the explosion destroyed an entire building at the facilities.
Davis also confirmed that several people are missing and some are deceased, but did not provide an exact number. WSMV-TV reported Friday that at least 19 people were missing and one person was possibly dead.
The explosion impacted both Humphreys and Hickman County.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also responding to the scene.
Accurate Energetic Systems, based in nearby McEwan, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Friday morning.
Video from the scene showed a burning debris field with smoke billowing into the air. WTVF-TV in Nashville broadcast images of debris strewn about the site, with damaged vehicles in a parking lot. The news station said it received calls from people in the area who felt a large explosion.
Residents in Lobelville, more than a 20-minute drive from the manufacturer, said they felt their homes shake and some people captured the loud boom of the explosion on their home cameras.
The blast rattled Gentry Stover from his sleep.
“I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,” he told the AP by phone. “I live very close to Accurate and I realized about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.”
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