One Dead, Three Injured In Blast At Tennessee Ammunition Plant

[April 17, 2014]  By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) — One person has died and three others were injured on Wednesday after an explosion at an ammunition plant in central Tennessee that touched off small brush fires nearby, authorities said.

The explosion happened Wednesday afternoon at the Rio Ammunition plant in McEwen, Tennessee, about 56 miles west of Nashville, said Odell Poyner, Humphreys County director of emergency management.

All four people were transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville with blast injuries, two by helicopter, hospital spokesman Craig Boerner said.

One man died at the medical center and a second man was listed in critical condition, Boerner said. Two other patients, a man and a woman, were listed as stable, he said.

Poyner said there were 10 or 12 workers in the building at the time of the explosion and all were now accounted for.

The fire in the building was smoldering, but appeared to be out and crews were continuing to pour water on it, Poyner said. Crews also appeared close to getting brush fires ignited by the blast under control, he said.

(Reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville; writing by David Bailey; editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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