The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1917-01-12
Heroic Telephone Girl Saves
Lives of 1,40O Men at
Kingsland, N. J.
HEAVY EXPLOSIONS
TERRIFY NEW YORK
Blaze Continues for Hours
$5, 100000 One Esti-
mate of LOSS.

Tessie Mcnamara, telephone SWITCH
board girl at the big munitions plant
Of the Canadian Car and Foundry
Company on the Jersey meadows near
kingsland. freed her red hair Of re-
ceiving harness and got up to get
stick Of gum from the pocket Of her
jacket hanging on the wall near by.
This was just at $40 P. NJ. yesterday.
She happened to glance out Of
window which overlooked a long ave-
nue. of concrete and iron one story
buildings and forgot all about her long
ing for gum. For a wisp, of smoke was
curling from the caves Of building 80.
a shed stored with 200 gallons of gaso-
lene and used for cleaning and polish
ing high explosive shells stuffed with
trinitrotoluol "T. N. T." shed not
ten yards distant from another packed
with loaded shells. $4,000 of them,
awaiting shipment to Russia.
With one bound Tessie was back at
the switchboard. headgear adjusted,
fighting to conquer her rising panic.
She beat down her fears (she knew
what smoke wisps portended in a vast
plant packed with tremendous explo-
sives) and rapidly connected with shed
after shed-just a word or two:
Fire in shed 30-,-sure to reach shell
cars on side traek-don't wait a sec
ond-get all men out"
workers swarm to safety.
And as she telephoned shed 30 burst
into flame, iron walls and iron roof
melting into rinning metal. Macarthur.
the plant fire chief, was sprinting for
the engine plant. Men were swarmng
like bees from a dozen sheds to which
Tesses swift, cool warning had flashed.
She watched them in their rush toward
the great gates on the Ridge road, her
fear sitting her at times. but always
conquered by her plucky heart. and kept
plugging in and out as she got speech
turning her head from the switchboard
she saw. then heard. the disaster de-
velop.
As she telephoned she saw shed 80 con-
! sumed In a great squirt of flame. saw
the flames leap to the railroad side
| track where six cars stood stuffed with
T. n. T. in bulk. explosive to be used
| In shell filing at need. The fire touched
and overran the cars and the T. y. T.
. lAe l-I2 A.
| stun does not explode at the touch of
| fire. but In a series of vast puffs as II
many gigantic firecrackers were fizzllng
out The girl saw the fire leap from
| the cars toward shed IS and 1t required
all of the nerve she could summon to
stick at her post because she knew what
that would mean
shed Held $4,000 Shells.
In shed 2s were $4,000 shells packed
| In cases and ready to be shipped to the
Russian army. The fire rolled up the
iron walls. Tessie waited. Nearly ten
minutes had passed since she first dis
covered the smoke curling from the
polishing shed with Its 200 gallon gaso-
lene tank.
| In that ten minutes her fidelity and
courage had gotten warning to every
building of the thirty-six in the twenty
acre plant. Nearly 1.400 men were run
ming for the gates or had a:reaGy reached
the open roads and the meadows And
then shed 2S let go. one tremendous
| roar after another as case after case
heated from the flames and detonated.
As Tessie sent in her final calls red
hot fragments OF steel ripped from the
bursting shells and flung high In the
air descended upon the roof OF the head
quarters building within five feet OF her
| head. Some Of the pieces tore through
one Just grazing her. She tainted
With building after building exploding
Macarthur the fire chief. and few Of his
aids dragged the unconscious girl from
the switchboard. carried her to the Ridge
road. put her In an automobile and told
the driver to stop for nothing. In al
probability her courage and sense OF
duty saved the lives of many hundred,
OF men.
General Manager Harkness of the Ca.
| madam Car and Foundry plant recog.
nlzed that fact. 1t was perfectly clear
II the girl had given way to her frs,
natural fright and had fed for her owr
I,fe It would not have been possible Il
warn shell filling gangs In at least a
dozen of the buildings. and the loss OF
life would certainly have been horrible
No Live. Lost I. Belief.
As it was. no lives were lost, so far as
is known, and the'injured are few But
at an early hour this morning the ex-
ploslons continued and surgeons and
nurses summoned with ambulances from,
neighborlng cities were unable to get
near the plant. II any workmen were
inside they were dead, but IL is believed
all escaped.
They carried the heroic telephone girl
out and to safety, with the plant turning
itself into hades OF flame and noise
bursting high explosive shells from shed
2s fell upon and fired other sheds near
ana far which contained completed shells
mr. highly infiammable or explosive mum.
| .ia.. ,,,nterlnl Within f1fteen mInufei