BUCKSNORT, Tenn. (WKRN) — As investigators continue to comb through the wreckage of an explosion in Tennessee that left 19 people unaccounted for Friday, Nexstar’s WKRN has learned more about the company that operated the facility.
Accurate Energetic Systems is a defense and commercial explosives manufacturer. Documents revealed that there were several Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations at the facility.
In 2019, the company received “serious” citations related to residue of cyclonite, an explosive powder, in areas where employees are permitted to consume food and drink. Cyclonite “could result in central nervous system impairment.” That same year, two employees experienced seizures and had the potential to be exposed to cyclonite while working in what documents called a “Hot House.” A discussion between an employer representative and a TOSHA representative evolved to a discussion about personal protective equipment.
“The employer explained that employees were provided with the option to wear long sleeves in the work place but they do not want to go to the extreme with PPE because their cyclonite is coated with a wax and therefore it wouldn’t be easily absorbed through the skin,” the document reads, in part. “The TOSHA representative explained that cyclonite has a skin designation and it is the employer’s responsibility to eliminate/reduce employee’s skin exposure.”
The serious violation found that “the employer had not ensured that surfaces in the break room including the table and microwave were kept free from the hazardous chemical cyclonite.” In the end, the company settled with the state and paid $7,200 in fines, agreed to make several changes and reclassified the citations to other-than-serious.
Accurate energetic systems works with powerful materials like TNT. They manufacture products designed for defense, aerospace, and mining to name a few. WKRN spoke to former FBI agent, Chris Hinkle, about the response to a facility like this.
“The first thing they’re going to want to do is make sure everybody’s accounted for,” Hinkle said. “They want to know what types of explosives are there, and what precautions they have to take before they go into that scene. When you enter that scene — just because they’ve had the explosion, there could still be unexploded ordinances that are there. There could be things that are delayed reactions with explosives. You really want to take your time.”
Hinkle said investigators will be focused on what was happening at the time of the blast.
“They should be able to find out the point of origin. We do this in fire investigations where you can look and you can kind of tell where the first blast of fire came from,” Hinkle said. “They should be able to track this down based on what the company was doing at the time, what they were working on, where it was, and if all of that matches up with what the company is saying, they should be able to wrap it up reasonably quick. It’s not going to be overnight, you really want to first make sure everybody is safe.”
As of Friday evening, there’s no indication as to what caused the explosion.
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