Tennessee’s explosive plant devastating blast leaves 19 missing

A powerful explosion ripped through a military explosives manufacturing plant in rural Tennessee on Friday, October 10, 2025, leaving 19 people missing and an undetermined number of people confirmed dead.

Chris Davis, the Humphreys County Sheriff, stated: “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone.”

“We do have some that are deceased.”

“I’m not gonna lie to you… We’re missing 19 souls.”

“It’s hell. It’s hell on us. It’s hell on everybody involved.”

The blast occurred around 7:45 a.m. Central Time at the Accurate Energetic Systems (AES) facility, located near the town of Bucksnort (Hickman County), 60 miles southwest of Nashville.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known and a full investigation is underway involving agencies such as the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The Sheriff also commented on the difficult and ongoing investigation:

“This is not going to be something that we’re going to be - like a car wreck or something like that - that we are just going to clean up the debris and leave.”

A nearby resident, Gentry Stover, described the moment of the explosion:

“I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it… I live very close to Accurate and I realised about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.”

McEwen Mayor Brad Rachford said, “This is a tragedy for our community.”