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Authorities on Monday identified 16 people killed in a devastating explosion in a rural Tennessee explosive plant last week, as investigators promised a painstaking process to find out what happened by finding pieces of evidence that may now be miles apart.
At a news conference, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said people in the united community probably knew at least a few relatives of the victims killed in Friday’s explosion at the plant owned by Accurate Energetic Systems. The company supplies and researches explosives for the military and is a well-known employer in the area.
“It’s just a small county, rural AmericaWhere everybody knows each other and everybody will take care of each other,” Davis said.
Even as people turned to Sunday worship services to express their grief, one congregation was mourning the death of its pastor in the blast.
Trent Stewart was pastor at The Log Church in Waverly, where Sunday school and worship were canceled this weekend and replaced with prayer time in the sanctuary, the church’s associate pastor, Charlie Musk, posted on social media.
Stewart’s fiancee Katie Stover said on social media that the church hosted a “packed out house” on Sunday.
“I know Trent would be absolutely thrilled by this,” she wrote. “We appreciate everyone who came and we hope everyone will join us again next Sunday. It brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes to see how many people came to honor Trent and all the other families.”
She wrote in an earlier post that Stewart made her “laugh until I couldn’t breathe and he was truly my best friend, my life partner, and my person.”
Another victim, Reyna Gilahan, dreamed of paying off her house and keeping it in the family, so her daughter, Rosalina Gilahan, started raising money after the explosion. It was one of several fundraisers for families who lost loved ones.
“She was a beautiful soul – loving, strong and always thinking of others before herself,” Rosalina Gilahan posted on social media about her mother.
Sheriffs from Humphreys and Hickman counties read the names of the victims at a Monday news conference. The others were: Jason Adams; Billy Baker; Christopher Clark; James Cook; Latisha Mayes; Melinda Rainey; Steven Wright; Eric Anderson; Adam Boatman; Mindy Clifton; Jeremy Moore; Melissa Stafford; Rachel Woodall; And Donald Yowell.
The initial explosion was felt more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) away, leaving a trail of twisted and charred metal and smoldering debris from burned vehicles at the plant. Officials said there were no survivors.
Officials said they were working to clear the area of hazards, including explosives, and identify remains.
Once the area is clear, authorities can begin investigating the cause of the explosion, said Matthew Belew, acting special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Some relevant evidence stretched for miles, Belew said.
“It’s almost like putting a puzzle back together,” Belew said. “We worked closely with AES to look at pictures, look at blueprints, look at any recognizable things that were in the building. And then we slowly and systematically started to put some of those things together.”
The plant is in a densely wooded area of Middle Tennessee. The 1,300-acre (526 ha) campus is composed of eight separate specialized production buildings and a laboratory. It extends about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of the Hickman and Humphreys county line into unincorporated Bucksnort. nashville,
On its website, the company says it adheres to rigorous safety and security standards.
An entry-level job at Accurate Energetic Systems pays $19 to $21 an hour, depending on what shift the employee is on, according to a job ad posted by the company last month. The jobs require only a high school diploma and some mechanical qualifications, making them better paying than jobs with similar education requirements.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said being able to avoid a long commute to a big city would have made the job more attractive. For work, Dixon is a half hour away and Nashville is an hour away. Also, due to the nature of work the salary may be higher.
“When you put it all together, those jobs were quite desirable in the sense that those workers should have been compensated for the danger they faced there,” Goss said.
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Mattis reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Josh Funk contributed Omahanebraska.