Local pastor among victims of huge explosion in rural area where ‘everybody knows each other’

Authorities on Monday identified the 16 people killed in a devastating blast at a rural Tennessee explosives plant on 10 October, as investigators promised a painstaking process to figure out what happened by tracking down pieces of evidence that may now be miles apart.

At a news conference, Chris Davis, the sheriff of Humphreys county, said people in the tight-knit community probably at least knew relatives of the victims killed in the explosion 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.

Initial toll after explosions at plant near McEwen on Friday was believed to be 19 people but later revised to 18.

There were no survivors in the blast that obliterated part of an explosives factory in rural Tennessee, authorities said on Saturday.

The families of 18 people had been waiting anxiously on Saturday as their loved ones had been feared dead since explosions ripped through the plant near McEwen in western Tennessee early on Friday. The initial toll had been believed to be 19 people but that figure was later revised.