inside the local chemical plant and in a blink of an eye it exploded
into massive flames. The alarm went out to all the fire departments
for miles around.
When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the
chemical company president rushed to the fire chief and said, "All
our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They
must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire department that
brings them out intact."
But the roaring flames held the firefighters off. Soon more fire
departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate.
As the firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer
was now $100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the
company's secret files.
From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came
into sight. It was the nearby Norwegian rural township volunteer fire
company composed mainly of Norwegians over the age of 65. To
everyone's amazement, that little run-down fire engine roared right
past all the newer sleek engines that were parked outside the plant.
Without even slowing down it drove straight into the middle of the
inferno. Outside, the other firemen watched as the Norwegian old
timers jumped off right in the middle of the fire fought it back on
all sides. It was a performance and effort never seen before.
Within a short time, the Norske old timers had extinguished the fire
and had saved the secret formulas. The grateful chemical company
president announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the
reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the
brave fire fighters.
The local TV news reporter rushed in to capture the event on film,
asking their chief, "What are you going to do with all that money?"
"Vell," said Ole Larsen, the 70-year-old fire chief, "Da first thing
ve gonna do is fix da brakes on dat focking truck!"
