Jessica O’Daniel has not worked at the munitions plant two miles from her home for over a decade. But many of her friends and neighbors are employed at the facility, owned by Accurate Energetic Systems — an economic bedrock for families in rural Hickman and Humphreys Counties, Tenn.
Her father has a part-time job there, too, though he was off on Friday morning when an immense explosion leveled the plant, rattled homes for miles around and stunned the community. Her daughter screamed and cried as Ms. O’Daniel, 36, looked out and saw a thick, fiery plume mushrooming in the sky.
Knowing that her father was safely at home briefly calmed Ms. O’Daniel. But she quickly learned that seven of her closest friends were among the 19 people initially reported missing in the wake of the explosion. The authorities later said that one of them was found safe at home.
“It’s horrifying that they may never be found,” she said on Friday evening. “But we’re holding on to hope.”
One day after the catastrophic explosion, residents of the community were gripped by a combination of fear and grieving as the authorities searched for more clues. The F.B.I. and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among the agencies investigating.
The plant, a 1,300-acre campus roughly 60 miles west of Nashville, employs around 75 people on its campus, spread across five production facilities and a lab. The workers load, assemble and pack explosive charges and munitions.
When she worked at the facility in 2011, she said, the building where the explosion took place was known as the “Melt Pour,” where workers poured explosives into tiny cups known as “blasters” or “boosters.” They were used for blasting hilly terrain that needed to be flattened for future roads, Ms. O’Daniel said.
“They tell you right off the rip that it’s a high-risk job,” she said. “You’re working with explosives every day, and any little thing can set it off.”
Ms. O’Daniel recalled being shown safety videos as a new hire, and wearing cotton undergarments, overalls and rubber boots to walk on the plant floor, which had a layer of water on it “in order to reduce static,” she said.
“I always felt safe,” she added.
On Friday afternoon, Ms. O’Daniel checked in with her father, Jeff Wallace. He told her that he was trying to occupy his mind by laying hay on his property. But he told her that when he closed his eyes, “all he can see is his buddies’ faces,” the ones who worked with him at the plant.
On Saturday morning, Mr. Wallace wrote on Facebook that he was “wanting to wake up from this nightmare.”
“We have lost so many lifelong friends,” he wrote. “All their faces keep running through my head.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Eduardo Medina is a Times reporter covering the South. An Alabama native, he is now based in Durham, N.C.
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