Sissy Stine is comforted by her husband, Jamie Denson, as they pray with their son B.J. Denson, left, during a candlelight vigil at the Maple Valley Baptist Church on Oct. 11, 2025, in Nunnelly, Tennessee.
Jason Yates, second from left, is comforted as he arrives at Hurricane Chapel Freewill Baptist Church for a prayer service for victims of the explosion at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant.

WAVERLY, TN — Pastor Daron Brown comforted a grieving congregation on Oct. 12 with prayer, an all-too-familiar calling in recent years.

The Waverly Church of the Nazarene lost community members and its building in a 2021 flood. The son of a family in the congregation is among those presumed killed in last week's explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems.

Members of the victim's family sat in the front row during Brown's service. During the procession for communion, fellow parishioners embraced and offered comforting words to the family.

"We’re better at this than we should have to be," Brown said in a prayer during the service, at the church founded in 1946 as a rural tent revival.

Prayer and unity

Throughout Humphreys County and Hickman County, people gathered with their churches for support and comfort in the days after the tragedy.

An older woman sat alone in a pew at a McEwen church in Humphreys County during an afternoon prayer service on Oct. 11 and shook with sobs over the loss of a loved one, among those killed in the explosion. Others gathered together and knelt at the Hurricane Chapel Free Will Baptist Church altar, also in McEwen. Men prayed in unison for the 16 people who were killed.

During the church vigil, a teenager sat on the floor in the hallway with another church member and cried over lives lost in the blast. They shared the loss of a community member, a mother, a father, and a son.

"It's going to be a sad, sad day for our community for a while," said Hurricane Chapel Free Will Baptist Church member Jamie Brown, who grew up in Waverly. Her friend lost a son in the explosion.

"This is not the time to worry about why it happened, but to worry about who it happened to."

'Tears and stunned silence'

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee described the response to the Oct. 10 explosion at the plant as extensive and deliberate, emphasizing that crews are proceeding with caution as they work to secure the site.

Speaking at a news briefing on Oct. 12, Lee stood alongside officials from the Humphreys and Hickman County sheriff’s departments, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Earlier that day, Lee surveyed the wreckage from the air aboard a helicopter before joining grieving families at a local church. Inside, he said, the atmosphere was heavy with emotion.

“Tears and stunned silence,” Lee said when asked about the scene inside the church where he met with the victims’ families. There was also a spirit of love, concern, care, and prayer, Lee added.

Explosion flattened building, rocked communities

Longtime Hickman County residents Dale and Dwana Hicks said they heard the explosion but didn't think anything of it, at first. They said they often heard explosions as tests were conducted at the facility.

But as news spread of what really happened, they feared the worst. The explosion destroyed one of the plant buildings in a remote area split between Humphreys and Hickman counties.

Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis paused to fight back tears while briefing reporters in the days following the blast. He spent time with relatives of the missing workers and then told reporters that the rescue mission had shifted to a recovery.

"More than 300 people have been over every square inch and found no survivors," Davis said.

Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation worked to conduct DNA testing and confirm the identities of those who died.

Pastors ask community to 'go with prayer in your heart'

About 36 hours after the blast, Davis and Hickman County Sheriff Jason Craft joined people gathered for another vigil at Maple Valley Baptist Church in Nunelly, about a five-minute drive from the blast site. About 100 people gathered, holding candles as they sang, prayed, and cried together.

"It's good for the community to get together," Dale Hicks said as he looked out over the crowd gathered at the evening vigil. "There's good people looking out for them. We're praying for the families."

Hurricane Chapel Free Will Baptist Church Pastor Tim Farris said he spent hours comforting and praying with victims' relatives at their homes before hosting a prayer vigil at his church.

"Most of you here today knew someone" who was killed, the pastor said to about two dozen vigil attendees. "I've seen some ugly comments on social media saying, 'What does prayer do?' Prayer is a powerful thing. When you leave here, go with a prayer in your heart."

Farris said he visited with a young man the night before, who lost a relative in the explosion.

"He said, 'I wish that tomorrow was Sunday, so I could be with my church family,'" Farris said. "We told him, 'We're still here.'"

The pastor said some community members lost relatives during the 2021 floods that devastated the area and killed 20. Now, he added, they've lost someone in the explosion.

'We have learned to be the community that's needed'

Brown, pastor of Waverly Church of the Nazarene in Humphreys County, said in an interview that the response to the latest tragedy will be drawn out like the flood, but a sense of closure will be less immediate. Whereas those killed in the flood were recovered soon after, it will be longer for families of blast victims to have funerals.

Amid this disorienting set of circumstances, Brown said he and his congregation are focused on providing support.

“What does it mean to shape a community of faith to see the light, to be the light?” Brown said in an interview.

Brown scrapped his sermon for Sunday morning’s service soon after the explosion. Instead, he preached on “what it really means to be in a community of grief with each other and for each other."

Meanwhile, Brown said he plans to attend a community vigil later on Oct. 12. Waverly Church of the Nazarene has volunteered to help feed first responders working at the blast site.

"For all the tragedies our community has experienced…we have learned to be the community that’s needed," Brown said in an Oct. 12 sermon. "If you’re grieving today…know that you’re surrounded by people with you and for you."

Contributing: Evan Mealins, The Tennessean

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Communities lean on past grief to heal 'together' after deadly Tennessee plant blast

Reporting by Beth Warren, Liam Adams and Rachel Wegner, USA TODAY NETWORK / Nashville Tennessean

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