‘In an instant, they were gone’

In Bucksnort, Tennessee, residents have spent a chilly autumn night heeding a simple message spraypainted on a concrete barrier by the side of the road: “Pray for the AES families”.

Community members gathered on Saturday for a candlelit vigil outside the Maple Valley Baptist Church after a blast at local explosives factory Accurate Energetic Systems (AES) left 16 people presumed dead.

This community of Hickman and Humphreys Counties is “not huge, so that’s a lot of people to lose in an instant,” Deacon Danny Bates said to the approximately 40 attendees, who comforted each other and sang hymns such as “It Is Well With My Soul”.

“It was just another day at work, and then in an instant, they were gone. We have unanswered questions”.

Vigil-goer Jerri Newcombe said her friend of more than 20 years was among the victims. The two met when Newcombe’s granddaughter and the victim’s daughter became close as little girls.

“They grew up together – we were in each other’s homes,” Newcombe told the BBC at the vigil. “We celebrated birthdays together. It’s just surreal, because she’s gone and her babies are hurting,” she said, referring to the victim’s children and grandchildren.

Local police have not publicly identified any of the unaccounted-for victims, who authorities presume have all been killed.

Her friend was “full of life”, Ms Newcombe said. “She was the type of person that could make you laugh over anything, but you didn’t cross her either, or she would tear into you,” Ms. Newcombe added amid tears and laughter, as her granddaughter comforted her.

Bucksnort is a close-knit town where the cell service is spotty and a gas station – adorned with a Confederate flag centrepiece – is the local watering hole, residents say. This tragedy has hit the area hard as the community mourns family, friends, neighbours and coworkers.

The town had been holding out hope for good news after the explosion on Friday morning shook homes across the area, clouded the skies with smoke and drew a surge of hundreds of state and national first responders to an otherwise sleepy community tucked behind forests along a busy motorway.

But after nearly two days with no sign of survivors and the explosion site still considered dangerous for first responders, even the previously optimistic Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said the time had come to switch to a recovery – rather than rescue – strategy.

“At some point in time, we have got to rip off the Band-Aid,” Davis, who has held back tears at news conferences, said. “We are dealing with remains.”

Hickman County Sheriff Jason Craft told the BBC on Saturday night that rapid DNA analysis was still ongoing, but that after a search by 300 first responders, authorities had enough confidence in their assessment of the scene to notify families that their loved ones were likely deceased.

No cause of the blast has yet been identified, and agents from the national Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are investigating. It could take as long as a month for federal investigators to reach the main site of the explosion, ATF official Brice McCracken told the BBC.

The volatile nature of the explosive materials has also hampered the emergency response, officials said, as controlled detonations to render the site safe are also expected in the coming days.

Tiffany Story says her cousin was also among the victims, along with four other people that she knew, including someone she once used to babysit for.

“Everybody knows everybody here,” an emotional Mrs Story told the BBC. “With everybody being so close, it’s very comforting to have family. That’s what we are – whether [by] blood, not blood, this whole community is family.”

“There’s probably never gonna be any answers” to the tragedy, she said.

Janie Brown said she also knew victims at the site. “They were loved by their families and by the community,” she said outside another prayer vigil at the Hurricane Chapel Free Will Baptist Church in nearby McEwen.

“It’s just a sad, sad day,” she said.

Residents told the BBC the Accurate Energetic Systems (AES) company employed about 80 workers, and is one of the only private well-paying jobs around in these counties. For many here, the plant was known as a reliable first job for themselves or close friends.

A recent job opening advertised a $19-per-hour salary for an entry-level manual labour job, more than double the state’s minimum wage of $7.25.

The factory has seen other difficulties, but none at such a scale as this.

In 2014, an explosion at the company killed one person, and a 2019 workplace safety inspection led to relatively minor financial penalties, which the company settled, according to online records.

Residents who spoke to the BBC had mostly positive feelings towards the company, and local police say they had no previous reports of unsafe working conditions.

Hurricane Chapel Free Will Baptist Church Pastor Tim Ferris praised his congregation’s response to the tragedy.

“One thing about a small community is that when something like this happens, they rally around each other, and they come close to be the hands and the feet of Jesus, to administer to these people, to care for them, provide for them.

And that’s a wonderful thing,” he said.