One dark night outside a small town in Wisconson a fire started 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 department for miles around.
When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the chemical
company president rushed to the fire chief and said, "All of 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.