Grace Lyons, a telephone operator at the Aetna Chemical Co. plant in Oakdale, stayed in her office when a huge explosion on Dec. 5, 1917, ripped through the plant, sending red-hot fragments of metal and wood raining down on nearby Heidelberg and Collier.

The blast, which shattered windows in homes and factories within a two-mile radius of the plant, killed 10 workers and seriously injured 25 others at the plant, whose 200 employees made high explosives to support the U.S. war effort in World War I.

The workers who were able to walk fled the plant, stumbling into the streets of Heidelberg. But not Lyons.

She remained behind in her office to telephone hospitals and doctors, who responded quickly to the catastrophe on that cold December day, amid swirling snow.

Firefighters responding to

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