For much 1917, the U.S. was neutral in World War One, but we were selling munitions to Great Britain and Russia. The Kingsland Munitions plant in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, was making artillery shells.

About noon on January 11, 1917, saboteurs had started a fire in one of the thirty buildings of the plant. Tessie McNamara was just returning from lunch when she spotted the fire in Building #30. Since she was well aware what a fire meant in a munitions plant, she might have run for her life. Tessie, however, was a special breed of woman.

She went into her office, where she worked as a switchboard operator, and began calling the police, fire trucks and ambulances. Then, she called every shop in the plant to tell the employees they had had to evacuate immediately.

500,000 pieces of 76mm shells exploded some time later totally demolishing the plant. Not one one person was killed nor injured.

Tessie McNamara had saved the lives of 1,400 employees, and was honored for it.