Throughout World War I, the Aetna Chemical Company manufactured munitions for the Allied powers at plants in Noblestown, Carnegie, and Oakdale. Constructed in 1915 less than a mile south of here, the Oakdale plant eventually employed over 450 workers producing TNT and other wartime chemicals, and France alone ordered three quarters of its explosives from Aetna. On the afternoon of May 18, 1918, at the height of wartime production and patriotism, the TNT Building at the Oakdale plant suffered a devastating explosion. Bystanders from Oakdale ran into the flames to rescue those trapped, only to be caught in subsequent explosions. A monument in Oakdale Cemetery was dedicated to the 200 victims, who were said to have died like soldiers in their country's service. Among those killed were sixteen-year-old Kirven Lawhon, who had quit his job the previous day and was preparing to leave for a safer job in Ohio when he ran to help after the first explosion, and sixty-six-year-old James Keenan, who also rushed to assist and was identified several days later through personal effects found near his remains. Marlyn Ashelman, a young nurse from Pittsburgh, survived while aiding the injured but lost part of her leg when a steel girder severed it. After a lengthy investigation, government officials determined that human error, not sabotage, caused the explosion.
