The search for the missing after an explosion at a Tennessee ammunition plant has become a search for their remains, officials said on Saturday.
No survivors have been found at the site of the blast that occurred on Friday, local authorities said, adding that more than 300 emergency workers had scoured the ruins. Sixteen people remained missing on Saturday.
The explosion occurred at a plant owned by Accurate Energetic Systems, which produces explosives and demolition charges for the U.S. military.
The recovery process has been slow, said Sheriff Chris Davis of Humphreys County, Tenn., at a news conference on Saturday, as bomb technicians and explosive specialists worked to ensure that the scene was safe for law enforcement officers to continue the investigation.
Here’s what we know about the blast.
When and where did it happen?
The explosion occurred at 7:45 a.m. Central time roughly 60 miles west of Nashville. The facility is on a sprawling 1,300-acre campus straddling Hickman and Humphreys Counties in rural Tennessee.
Witnesses said the explosion was so powerful that it rattled homes at least a dozen miles away and generated a plume of smoke large enough to register on the weather radar of a Nashville television station.
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The post What We Know About the Explosion at a Tennessee Ammunition Plant appeared first on New York Times.
