(Kim Jarrett, The Center Square) The losses at the Accurate Energetic Systems are staggering, Gov. Bill Lee said of the explosion that killed 16 people on Friday.
The explosion at the plant in Bucksnort was so strong it registered as an earthquake with a 1.6 magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Center. Bucksnort is on the Humphreys and Hickman county line, about 50 miles west of Nashville.
The National Response Team for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is working with a number of federal and state agencies to investigate the cause of the explosion and to identify remains.
Tyra Cunningham, assistant special agent in charge for the bureau’s Nashville office, said Sunday she didn’t want to speculate on how long the investigation would take.
“Where it goes from here is of course we are at day two of the National Response Team being on the ground,” Cunningham said. “They are doing their walkthroughs right now and then they will begin to process the scene. Once they have left whether it’s weeks or months, we do have more work to do on the backend which is the laboratory work, the origin and cause reports.”
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is identifying the remains.
“So we are currently and as a matter of fact, just started the second set of the process of identifying remains,” said David B. Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. “And so the first part was getting standards from family members and so we’ll be able to do some comparisons with DNA. We’re using the newest technology, rapid DNA, here on site.”
Lee toured the scene and met with families before holding a news conference that was lives streamed on local media outlets.
“The losses are staggering and quite frankly, to know that the world knows and to know that the nation is focused is a part of that sense of, you know, ‘someone sees me and someone knows that this has happened to me,’ I think that is important,” Lee said. “It doesn’t solve the problem for them. It doesn’t bring their loved one back. But to be heard and to be seen is part of the healing process for every family.”
Accurate Energetic Systems processes ammunition and explosives but does not manufacture them, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said in its Sunday update.
The agency said it is continuing to dispose of unstable or hazardous materials and residents could hear the explosions and see black smoke.
