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  • 19 people dead or missing after massive blast at Tennessee military explosive plant, officials say

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    Nineteen people are dead or missing after a massive blast obliterated a building at a Tennessee explosives facility on Friday, authorities said — a “mass detonation” so significant that it rattled homes miles away.The early-morning explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, which manufactures military and demolitions explosives, left charred debris and mangled vehicles across a vast area. The blast was felt as far as 15 miles away and scattered debris over half a square mile.Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said there are fatalities, but did not want to declare a death toll yet — just that “we’re missing 19 souls.”“I always wish for the best,” Davis said. “Is there a possibility that somebody might be injured somewhere, or somebody that we don’t know about? Yes.”Davis described the aftermath of the explosion as “the most devastating scene that I’ve seen in my career.”“It’s hell,” Davis told reporters Friday evening. “It’s hell on us. It’s hell on everybody involved.”Video below: Aerial footage shows the extent of the damageWork at the explosion site will continue into the night, he said.“We’re working for our people, and we want to take care of our families,” an emotional Davis said. “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 investigators from multiple agencies have been assisting with the response, but have not yet determined what caused the explosion. The FBI will be assisting.“Do I see a short-term explanation? No. Do I see us being here for many days? Yes, I do see that,” he said.Families of the victims were still being notified, said Davis, noting that people were undergoing a “gauntlet of emotions” as first responders continued to search the area. The tragedy hit close-knit communities.“I can tell you right off the top of my head that there’s three families that’s involved in this that I’m very close to,” Davis said. “When you have small counties like this, we know each other, we communicate with each other, we love each other.”The blast shook nearby homes and set off smaller explosions, local officials say.The explosion, which happened around 7:45 a.m. local time, was a “devastating blast,” but responders were able to secure the scene by late morning, Davis said.Three people with “minor injuries” from the explosion were treated at TriStar medical facilities in Dickson, Casey Stapp, the spokesperson for TriStar Health, said. Stapp said two people were released, and one person is still receiving treatment at an emergency room.Accurate Energetic Systems is located about an hour southwest of Nashville, Tennessee, on the Hickman and Humphreys County line, the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.Numerous law enforcement resources from across the state of Tennessee have been dispatched to assist in the investigation, a source familiar told CNN. Those personnel include federal agents and the Tennessee Highway Patrol Special Operations Unit, among other agencies. The relatively remote area is typically patrolled by smaller law enforcement departments, the person said, which has prompted other agencies to volunteer resources for support.Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates said the facility has about 80 employees, but it’s unclear how many were in the building when the explosion happened. Bates said one building on the site was completely destroyed.“It’s pretty devastating to see this,” Bates said.“It’s going to be an investigation that’s probably going to go on for days,” the mayor said. “This facility, they do manufacture, not only military, but demolition explosives for road work and things like that.”Tennessee state Sen. Kerry Roberts told CNN the facility sits on a 1,300-acre campus and is a beloved employer for many people in the community.He said it’s common to see employees at community events and people wearing baseball caps with the company name on them.“It is a well-loved company in the area,” Roberts said. “So this is going to have a devastating impact on quite a few families … it is heartbreaking.”Residents who live near the facility say they felt the impact of the explosion.“I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,” Gentry Stover told The Associated Press 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.”Cody Warren, who lives in Lobelville, which is 21 miles away from the facility, said the sound from the explosion woke him up, and he thought lightning struck his house.Accurate Energetic Systems specializes in making military explosives, according to the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office.The company’s Facebook page says it manufactures “various high explosive compositions and specialty products for the U.S. DoD and U.S. Industrial markets.”In April 2014, one person was killed and four others injured during a blast at the plant, CNN affiliate WSMV reported. The explosion, in the back of a building that housed shotgun ammunition, caused extensive damage. At the time, authorities said several companies operated on the Accurate Energetic Systems property but the blast happened in an area operated by Rio Ammunition.In the player below: Here is a look at what the plant looked like after the 2014 explosionLast month, the US Department of Defense awarded Accurate Energetic Systems a contract for nearly $120 million “for the procurement of TNT.”The Hickman County Sheriff’s Office is asking everyone to avoid the area as emergency responders do their work.

    Nineteen people are dead or missing after a massive blast obliterated a building at a Tennessee explosives facility on Friday, authorities said — a “mass detonation” so significant that it rattled homes miles away.

    The early-morning explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, which manufactures military and demolitions explosives, left charred debris and mangled vehicles across a vast area. The blast was felt as far as 15 miles away and scattered debris over half a square mile.

    Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said there are fatalities, but did not want to declare a death toll yet — just that “we’re missing 19 souls.”

    “I always wish for the best,” Davis said. “Is there a possibility that somebody might be injured somewhere, or somebody that we don’t know about? Yes.”

    Davis described the aftermath of the explosion as “the most devastating scene that I’ve seen in my career.”

    “It’s hell,” Davis told reporters Friday evening. “It’s hell on us. It’s hell on everybody involved.”

    Video below: Aerial footage shows the extent of the damage

    Work at the explosion site will continue into the night, he said.

    “We’re working for our people, and we want to take care of our families,” an emotional Davis said. “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 investigators from multiple agencies have been assisting with the response, but have not yet determined what caused the explosion. The FBI will be assisting.

    “Do I see a short-term explanation? No. Do I see us being here for many days? Yes, I do see that,” he said.

    Families of the victims were still being notified, said Davis, noting that people were undergoing a “gauntlet of emotions” as first responders continued to search the area. The tragedy hit close-knit communities.

    “I can tell you right off the top of my head that there’s three families that’s involved in this that I’m very close to,” Davis said. “When you have small counties like this, we know each other, we communicate with each other, we love each other.”

    The blast shook nearby homes and set off smaller explosions, local officials say.

    The explosion, which happened around 7:45 a.m. local time, was a “devastating blast,” but responders were able to secure the scene by late morning, Davis said.

    Three people with “minor injuries” from the explosion were treated at TriStar medical facilities in Dickson, Casey Stapp, the spokesperson for TriStar Health, said. Stapp said two people were released, and one person is still receiving treatment at an emergency room.

    Accurate Energetic Systems is located about an hour southwest of Nashville, Tennessee, on the Hickman and Humphreys County line, the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.

    Numerous law enforcement resources from across the state of Tennessee have been dispatched to assist in the investigation, a source familiar told CNN. Those personnel include federal agents and the Tennessee Highway Patrol Special Operations Unit, among other agencies. The relatively remote area is typically patrolled by smaller law enforcement departments, the person said, which has prompted other agencies to volunteer resources for support.

    Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates said the facility has about 80 employees, but it’s unclear how many were in the building when the explosion happened. Bates said one building on the site was completely destroyed.

    “It’s pretty devastating to see this,” Bates said.

    “It’s going to be an investigation that’s probably going to go on for days,” the mayor said. “This facility, they do manufacture, not only military, but demolition explosives for road work and things like that.”

    Tennessee state Sen. Kerry Roberts told CNN the facility sits on a 1,300-acre campus and is a beloved employer for many people in the community.

    He said it’s common to see employees at community events and people wearing baseball caps with the company name on them.

    “It is a well-loved company in the area,” Roberts said. “So this is going to have a devastating impact on quite a few families … it is heartbreaking.”

    Residents who live near the facility say they felt the impact of the explosion.

    “I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,” Gentry Stover told The Associated Press 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.”

    Cody Warren, who lives in Lobelville, which is 21 miles away from the facility, said the sound from the explosion woke him up, and he thought lightning struck his house.

    Accurate Energetic Systems specializes in making military explosives, according to the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office.

    The company’s Facebook page says it manufactures “various high explosive compositions and specialty products for the U.S. DoD and U.S. Industrial markets.”

    In April 2014, one person was killed and four others injured during a blast at the plant, CNN affiliate WSMV reported. The explosion, in the back of a building that housed shotgun ammunition, caused extensive damage. At the time, authorities said several companies operated on the Accurate Energetic Systems property but the blast happened in an area operated by Rio Ammunition.

    In the player below: Here is a look at what the plant looked like after the 2014 explosion

    Last month, the US Department of Defense awarded Accurate Energetic Systems a contract for nearly $120 million “for the procurement of TNT.”

    The Hickman County Sheriff’s Office is asking everyone to avoid the area as emergency responders do their work.

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  • Opinion: How a California community helped prevent the Bridge fire from destroying their town

    Opinion: How a California community helped prevent the Bridge fire from destroying their town

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    On the evening of Sept. 10, things looked bad for the mountain ski town of Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains, northeast of Los Angeles. Driven by extreme fire weather, the Bridge fire, which had started on the other side of the mountain range, grew from just a few thousand acres to 34,240 acres that day, and was spreading toward the town. By the next morning, it had reached Wrightwood’s boundaries.

    This could have been a catastrophe, like the Camp fire in 2018, which claimed dozens of lives and destroyed thousands of homes in the northern Sierra Nevada town of Paradise. Instead, out of more than 2,000 residences in Wrightwood, 13 were destroyed by the Bridge fire. It’s tragic that homes were lost, yet the fact that more than 99% of residences survived and all of the people were safely evacuated is a significant wildfire success story. What explains it?

    In recent years, Wrightwood got very serious about community fire-safety measures. Long before the Bridge fire began, the local Fire Safe Council held educational events, coordinating with multiple agencies and governments. They promoted the importance of simple “home hardening” measures to make homes more fireproof, such as sweeping pine needles and leaves off of roofs and installing modern exterior vents that prevent flaming embers from entering houses. They preached about the effectiveness of “defensible space,” advocating that residents prune grasses, saplings and lower limbs immediately adjacent to their homes. And they created an evacuation plan.

    The Bridge fire is still burning, but slowly being brought under control. It’s currently 71% contained, with some zones still under evacuation and evacuation warning. As it threatened Wrightwood, wildland firefighting teams prioritized the kind of direct community protection the town had been preparing its residents for, rather than focusing on remote wildland areas, and trying to stop a wind-driven fire that could not realistically be stopped.

    They found that most homes in the town had defensible space, thanks to pruning done by owners. Firefighters concentrated aerial drops of fire retardant and water adjacent to the community, to keep the fire from entering the town. And they helped people evacuate, following the plan the townspeople had made.

    Wrightwood’s success in keeping most of its homes safe demonstrates that focusing directly on at-risk communities, rather than on forest management activities out in the wildlands, is a significant way to protect towns from wildfires. We have seen the grim results of logging vast areas of remote forest under the guise of “thinning” and telling communities that these zones would act as fuel breaks, preventing wildfires from reaching towns. Paradise, Greenville (destroyed in the Dixie fire in 2021) and Grizzly Flats, which is still rebuilding after two-thirds of it was lost to the Caldor fire that same year, are all examples of the fallacy of this approach.

    Yet there are those who would ignore examples like Wrightwood and want to double down on the failed strategies of the past. The most dangerous current example is the deceptively named Fix Our Forests Act, a bill sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). If passed it would roll back bedrock environmental laws and allow for clear-cutting — taking out most or all trees in an area — and logging of mature and old-growth trees on federal public lands. The bill is wrong on the science.

    While certain forest management practices, such as controlled burns and prescribed natural fires, are important wildfire management tools, there is growing consensus among ecologists and climate scientists that “thinning” and other logging activities do not curb wildfires and more often tend to intensify their behavior and effects. Some of the Forest Service’s own scientists are now criticizing their agency for the failures of the old approach, noting its ineffectiveness and urging a direct focus on community protection. Other Forest Service scientists are reporting that denser forests tend to burn less intensely in wildfires because of their shadier and cooler microclimate, while “thinned forests have more open conditions, which are associated with higher temperatures, lower relative humidity, higher wind speeds, and increasing fire intensity.”

    We cannot afford to go backward and stubbornly repeat costly mistakes, as the Fix Our Forests Act would do. Vulnerable communities need officials to take heed of examples like Wrightwood and begin prioritizing community wildfire safety over logging industry profits.

    Chad Hanson is a wildfire scientist with the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute and the author of “Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate.”

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    Chad Hanson

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