Authorities name the 16 killed in Tennessee plant blast, with a painstaking investigation promised
McEWEN Tenn AP Officers on Monday identified the people killed in a devastating blast at a rural Tennessee explosives plant last week as investigators promised a painstaking process to figure out what happened by finding pieces of evidence that may now be miles apart At a news conference Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis mentioned people in the tight-knit group seemingly at least knew relatives of the casualties killed in the explosion Friday 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 small county rural America where everybody knows each other and everybody s gonna take care of each other Davis stated Even as people turned to Sunday worship services to process their grief one congregation was mourning the loss of their pastor in the explosion Trent Stewart was the pastor at The Log Church in Waverly where Sunday school and worship was canceled this weekend and replaced with a time of prayer in the sanctuary the church s associate pastor Charlie Musick posted on social media The church hosted a packed out house Sunday Stewart s fiance Katy Stover explained on social media I know this would have absolutely thrilled Trent 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 various people established up to honor Trent and all the other families She wrote in a prior post that Stewart made her laugh until I couldn t breathe and he was truly my best friend my soulmate and my person Reyna Gillahan another victim had dreamed of paying off her home and keeping it in the family so her daughter Rosalina Gillahan began fundraising after the explosion It was one of several fundraisers for families who lost loved ones She was a beautiful soul loving strong and unfailingly thinking of others before herself Rosalina Gillahan posted on social media about her mother The sheriffs of Humphreys and Hickman counties read off the names of the casualties at Monday s news conference The others were Jason Adams Billy Baker Christopher Clark James Cook LaTeisha Mays Melinda Rainey Steven Wright Erick Anderson Adam Boatman Mindy Clifton Jeremy Moore Melissa Stafford Rachel Woodall and Donald Yowell The initial blast was felt for more than miles kilometers leaving a smoldering wreck of twisted and charred metal and burned-out vehicles at the plant Functionaries disclosed there were no survivors Agents mentioned they are working to clear the area of hazards including explosives and to identify remains Once the area is clear agents can start assessing what caused the explosion stated Matthew Belew acting special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives Chosen of the relevant evidence is spread out over miles Belew stated It s almost like putting a puzzle back together Belew reported We have worked closely with AES to know to look at pictures look at blueprints any of the identifying things that were in the building And then we slowly methodically start to put a few of that stuff together The plant is in a heavily wooded area of middle Tennessee The -acre - hectare complex is made up of eight different specialized production buildings and a lab It straddles the Hickman and Humphreys county line in unincorporated Bucksnort about miles kilometers southwest of Nashville On its website the company says it adheres to rigorous safety and precaution standards An entry level job at Accurate Energetic Systems pays between and an hour depending on which shift a worker is on according to a job ad the company posted last month The jobs require only a high school diploma and selected mechanical aptitude making them better paid than jobs with similar schooling requirements Creighton University economist Ernie Goss announced being able to avoid a long commute to a larger city would have made the job more attractive Dickson is half an hour away and Nashville an hour away for work Plus the pay may have been higher because of the nature of the work When you put it all together those jobs were pretty desirable in the sense that those workers should have been compensated for the danger there Goss noted Mattise published from Nashville Tennessee Josh Funk contributed from Omaha Nebraska Source
