BENTON, Tenn. -- An employee of an illegal fireworks factory that blew up and killed 11 people -- including the employee's mother and sister -- linked the alleged owner Monday to the explosion.
Debbie Trentham, 18, testified she worked on a fireworks assembly line at the factory and linked Dan Lee Webb, 30, to its operation.
Miss Trentham said he earned $5 an hour and it was paid in cash.
'Who paid you, Debbie?' Assistant District Attorney James Watson asked Miss Trentham.
'Dan handed it to us,' said Miss Trentham, whose mother Faye and sister Tanya were killed.
Polk County General Sessions Judge Frank Hammons bound Webb to the August term of the grand jury on 11 manslaughter charges and charges of possession and manufacture of illegal fireworks.
Webb -- whose mother, brother and uncle were killed in the explosion - faces a prison sentence of up to 55 years. He remained free under $150,000 bond.
The 40-by-70 foot, two-story factory on Webb's Southeast Tennessee worm farm erupted May 27 -- hurling bodies as far as 100 feet, shooting a mushroom cloud 80 feet in the air and shaking the earth 20 miles away.
'All I could see when I got there was a fire with secondary explosions going on,' Polk County Sheriff Frank Payne testified in the preliminary hearing.
'We began scouting about looking for people who might be in need of aid and that's when we found bodies and pieces of bodies strewn about the area.'
Miss Trentham said she started working at the factory in April. She was not asked where she was the day the factory exploded.
'After they filled the firecracker tubes with the chemical stuff, I put liquid glass on one end of the tubes and then I put on the fuses,' Miss Trentham testified.
'Dan handed it to us,' said Miss Trentham, whose mother Faye and sister Tanya were killed.
Polk County General Sessions Judge Frank Hammons bound Webb to the August term of the grand jury for indictment on the 11 manslaughter charges and charges of possession and manufacture of illegal fireworks.
Webb -- whose mother, brother and uncle were killed in the explosion - faces a prison sentence of up to 55 years. He remained free under $150,000 bond.
The 40-by-70, two-story factory on Webb's Southeast Tennessee worm farm erupted May 27 -- hurling bodies as far as 100 feet, shooting a mushroom cloud 80 feet in the air and shaking the earth 20 miles away.
'All I could see when I got there was a fire with secondary explosions going on,' Polk County Sheriff Frank Payne testified in the preliminary hearing. 'We began scouting about looking for people who might be in need of aid and that's when we found bodies and pieces of bodies strewn about the area.'
Before Miss Trentham took the witness stand, Hammons advised her that her testimony could be used against her, prompting an outburst from her father in the courtroom.
'Your Honor, that's my daughter, and they never told her that she could be charged with anything,' Dewey Trentham told the judge. Miss Trentham returned to the stand to testify after conferring with the judge and lawyers.
Officials of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the explosion ignited while one worker was mixing the highly volatile chemical ingredients for flashpowder, used to load fireworks manufactured at the clandestine factory.
Miss Trentham said she started working at the factory in April. She was not asked where she was the day the factory exploded.
'After they filled the firecracker tubes with the chemical stuff, I put liquid glass on one end of the tubes and then I put on the fuses,' Miss Trentham testified. Asked who authorized days off at the factory, Miss Trentham, 'We told Dan when we wanted to take off.'
ATF officials said at the conclusion of their investigation that they probably will never determine exactly what touched off the explosion because the factory was blown to pieces.
Bob Holland, chief of the ATF's explosion response team, said a worker could have ignited the flashpowder by trying to light a cigarette.
Three packs of cigarettes and a disposable butane cigarette lighter were found in the charred debris of the factory, along with purses and other personal belongings of the seven women and four men killed.
Other possible causes included sparks from electric drills and other equipment found inside the fireworks factory and from a bare light bulb that hung by a wire from the factory's ceiling, Holland said.
Webb was charged when he returned from a business trip and surrendered at the Polk County Jail the night after the explosion.
Flashpowder was packed into M-80s and M-100s manufactured at the plant, Holland said. Banned by federal law, the explosives are known as 'quarter-pounders' because they pack the power of a quarter-stick of dynamite.
Holland said friends of the victims told investigators that workers generally mixed the flashpowder by hand 'like a salad.'
But Webb's wife, Linda Sue, ran from her house on the worm farm after the explosion and reportedly told neighbors the workers were 'trying something new' when the factory blew up, Holland said.
Holland said Mrs. Webb has refused to discuss what she told the neighbors. He said the workers could have ignited the explosion by trying to mix flashpowder with an electrical appliance.
Records inside Webb's home showed the factory had been in business for 20-23 weeks and manufactured more than five million M-80s and M-100s for a profit of $1.25 million. Officials said it was the largest illegal fireworks factory ever discovered.
M-80s and M-100s are sold on the black market at fireworks shops and other roadside businesses, Holland said.
