Sixteen people died Friday when a blast tore through the Accurate Energetic Systems (AES) munitions plant in Bucksnort, Tennessee. More than a score of others were injured. Local officials called it a “mass detonation” and said 19 employees were still missing and feared dead, about a quarter of the company’s workforce.
The explosion came at 7:45 a.m. Central Time. It leveled at least one building, believed to be Building Six of the facility’s eight, and shook houses more than a dozen miles away. A Nashville television station picked up the smoke plume on its radar. The plant sits about 50 miles southwest of the city.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis described the scene to reporters. “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone,” he said. “We are missing 19 souls right now. It’s one of the most devastating situations I’ve been on in my career.”
Gentry Stover, who lives close by, told the Associated Press the concussion woke him. “I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it. I live very close to Accurate and realized about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.”
Families wait for word
Outside the wrecked plant, relatives gathered. Ava Hinson told the New York Times her son, Jeremy Moore, had worked at AES for nearly 20 years. “We don’t know where he is,” she said. Nathan Birchard, whose girlfriend Rachel Woodall was on the early shift, wrote “Please pray for my girlfriend” on social media before driving to the site.
The cause has not been determined. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are on the scene, and Davis warned that crews might need days to reach the center of the wreckage. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we’re here next week,” he said.
A company with a record
AES is a privately held explosives maker working across a 1,300-acre site. It produces and tests RDX, TNT and PBXN-series military explosives for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and commercial demolition clients. Roughly 75 people work there, in rural counties west of Nashville where steady employment is hard to find.
It was not the first deadly blast on the property. In April 2014, an explosion destroyed a building used to make ammunition components, killing one worker and critically injuring three. Rio Ammunition operated the facility at that time.
Records from the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) show AES drew five serious citations in 2019. Several employees had suffered seizures after drying and sifting RDX powder without adequate protective gear, and investigators found RDX residue on workers’ skin and on break room surfaces. The National Center for Biotechnology Information says RDX exposure can cause “convulsions and unconsciousness, accompanied by headache, dizziness, and vomiting.”
After years of appeals, AES settled with TOSHA in 2023. The violations were vacated or downgraded to “other-than-serious,” and the company agreed to small fixes such as a hand-washing station and long-sleeve uniforms. The final penalty came to $7,200.
Federal oversight is thin at the moment. The government shutdown that began on October 1, 2025 has left the Occupational Safety and Health Administration with 460 of its 1,664 employees on duty, according to Engineering News-Record, and routine inspections are suspended. The World Socialist Web Site noted that the administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal would cut nearly $50 million from OSHA and eliminate 223 positions.
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- Accurate Energetic Systems Fatal Explosion | CSB
- 16 workers killed in explosion at Tennessee munitions plant…
