A Tennessee Sheriff Becomes the Face of Grief After Plant Explosion

Chris Davis, the sheriff of Humphreys County, Tenn., had barely sat down at the Log Cabin Restaurant in the community of Hurricane Mills when he was back on his feet to receive a hug.

“They got the right man for the job,” a worker at the restaurant said after embracing him. “This whole county knows it.”

“You’re going to put tears in my eyes,” Sheriff Davis said. He grabbed a napkin a few minutes later.

It was the start of another emotional day for Mr. Davis, who has become the face of local grief in public briefings after a blast at an explosives plant on his county line left 16 people dead. He has publicly stood alongside another sheriff, Jason Craft of neighboring Hickman County, as well as agents and experts sifting through the volatile remnants of the explosion. But Sheriff Davis has drawn notice for fighting through his anguish to relay the magnitude of the devastation, frequently pausing in an effort to compose himself.

Across several small, rural communities of the Middle Tennessee region, everyone is seemingly connected in some way to the families of the victims, who have yet to be formally identified. And Sheriff Davis is no different; he, too, knows some of the families personally.

He was out front again on Sunday, standing with Gov. Bill Lee and visiting with the families at a church near the Accurate Energetic Systems facility where the explosion occurred. Governor Lee, who took an aerial tour of the site, pledged a thorough investigation into the explosion and offered his condolences and prayers to the families.

It is rare to see a law enforcement official or politician be so unabashedly emotional in public, even in the aftermath of tragedy. Mr. Davis is not as guarded or polished on camera as some of his counterparts elsewhere in the country. But he has been cautious about saying anything that could hurt an already grieving family, or speaking without certainty during a fluctuating situation, a sincerity that has endeared him to his fellow residents.

“Maybe that’s not customary or usual, but it’s just who he is,” said Jessie Wallace, who, as a former Humphreys County executive, once worked with Sheriff Davis. “He’s got a heart as big as he is, and he’s a big guy.”

Humphreys County has always been home for Sheriff Davis, who was born and raised in the county seat of Waverly, Tenn., about 70 miles west of Nashville. He was always set on joining law enforcement and first became a dispatcher as a 17-year-old. (He received the nickname “Heavy D,” which follows him to this day.)

He was first elected to be sheriff in 2006, and has at times run unopposed. Before the Friday explosion, he was focused on the process of building a new jail. He was also coordinating a catfish fry fund-raiser — one of his specialties — for Angel Tree, a program that provides Christmas gifts to children and older residents. And in recent weeks, his office had to help figure out which farmer had a black bull who got loose.

“He’s a man of God — he pours it out,” said Steven Wittorp, 70, who stood at an emotional vigil where Sheriff Davis worshiped with his community Sunday evening. “We need him.”

Early Friday, Sheriff Davis got a call from dispatch that there had been an explosion. A big one.

His lieutenant called from the facility gate: “‘Sheriff, I need you here. This is magnified,’” he recalled. A few minutes later, he got another call: “I need you now.”

When he arrived, Sheriff Davis said he thought, My God, I’ve walked into hell.

He has seen disaster before, including a separate incident at the same facility involving a different company. The disaster that has stayed with him is the 2021 flash flooding that ravaged Waverly, killing 20 people and decimating homes and businesses. Since the flood, he said, “I’m more outwardly emotional.”

“The flood changed my person, it changed my inner person,” he added. “I still deal with a lot, I still cope with a lot.” He nodded to his bracelet, featuring a cross and the Lord’s Prayer on it.

During an early briefing, he said, he found himself looking at the families who were waiting for word of lost loved ones and neighbors including someone he had known since he was a child.

“It starts hitting me who these folks really are to me — it’s hard for me to hold that emotion,” he said. He added that “it could very easily be me sitting in that spot, and I try to be thoughtful and mindful of what their needs and their feelings are.”

Sheriff Davis does not often speak about his own work without pointing to those who helped him. They include Sheriff Craft, the people who dropped off crucial tools and supplies during the 2021 floods, the sheriffs with whom he once served on the same patrol shift together and who still talk via group text. On Sunday, they offered help.

“You don’t want to put him in that position, because he’s been in so much over the years, but also he has experience,” said Mr. Craft, who first ran for sheriff in 2022. When his mother got into a fatal car accident five years ago, Mr. Davis was there, holding her hand as she died. The two sheriffs were friendly before and have been close since.

On Sunday morning, Sheriff Davis’s meal — French dip sandwich, well-done fries and an appropriately sweet iced Arnold Palmer — was on the house, a waitress told him with a hug, though he still tossed money on the table.

As the sheriff moved toward the exit, he was stopped again and again for a hug and a tearful word of thanks. But he could not stay long. There was another briefing to get to.

Eduardo Medina contributed reporting.