One dark night outside a small town in Iowa, 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 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 Swedish rural township volunteer fire
company composed mainly of Swedes 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 Swedish 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 Swedish 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,, 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 Dolph Gunderson, the 70-year-old fire chief, "Da first ting ve
gonna do is fix da brakes on dat focking truck!"
