BUCKSNORT, Tenn. — At least 19 people were missing after a powerful explosion ripped through a central Tennessee ammunition plant early Friday, rattling residents for miles and leaving a half-square-mile of fiery, smoking debris that could still trigger more explosions.

Officials said it was not yet clear what had caused the blast, which destroyed an entire building at the facility. “It’s gone,” Sheriff Chris Davis of Humphreys County, Tennessee, said at a news conference, adding that the death toll remained unclear.

“I can tell you we are missing 19 souls right now,” he said. “It’s hell on everybody.”

The chaotic and volatile situation was unleashed by an explosion on the early shift, followed by a series of smaller blasts that might have been munitions.

Afterward, families of missing

See Full Page