- Agencies, including the FBI and ATF, are investigating the cause of the explosion.
- Aerial images show debris and ash across the site.
- The company manufactures military and demolition explosives.
Several people are dead and several others are missing after an explosion in Tennessee at a military explosives company, CNN and other media outlets reported Friday, citing local officials.
The explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Nashville, occurred at 7:45 a.m. local time (1245 GMT), Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said at a news conference.
Davis said there were multiple deaths, but it was still too early to know precisely how many people had died, and he said it was still possible there were some survivors.
When asked to describe the building where the explosion occurred, Davis said, “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone.”
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the scene working to determine the cause of the explosion, Davis said.
CNN aerial video showed what appeared to be the footprint of where a building once stood.
In an adjacent parking lot, debris and what appeared to be ashes were scattered among some parked vehicles.
Efforts to contact the company were unsuccessful.
Accurate Energetic Systems develops, manufactures and stocks explosives for “the military, aerospace and commercial demolition markets,” according to the company’s website.
The 1,300-acre headquarters in Bucksnort, Tennessee, includes eight production buildings and a quality laboratory.
Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates told CNN the plant had no history of safety problems, although a small ammunition explosion occurred in 2014.
That incident killed one person and injured three, according to The Tennessean newspaper.
