old Grump
06-14-2011, 03:51 PM
One dark night outside a small town in South west Wisconsin about 40 miles from my house, a fire started inside a small but prosperous 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. Even without the alarm the flames could be seen clearly in the night sky and everybody knew what it was and where it was.
When the volunteer fire fighters stated appearing on the scene, the company president Luke Baluk rushed to the fire chief's 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 arrived and the situation was desperate since it endangered the Swiss fudge factory just down the road and the ashes were coating the surface of the best trout pond in the county.
As the new volunteer 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. It was hopeless even with their combined efforts, nobody could enter the plant.
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 entirely of
Norwegians between the ages of 65 to 85. They were the only ones who knew how to run this old truck of theirs so by default they were the fire department for Ringerike township.
To everyone's amazement, that little run-down 1890's steam driven fire engine rolled right past all the newer sleek engines that were parked outside the plant. It didn't even slow down but drove straight into the middle of the inferno.
Outside the other firemen watched as the old Norwegians jumped off right into the middle of the fire and fought it back on all sides. It was a stellar superhuman performance, an effort never seen before by any of these youngsters most of them well under 40 years of age.
Within a short time, the gamle mannskap had extinguished the fire and had saved the secret formulas.
The grateful chemical company president announced that for such a brave and astounding 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 85-year-old fire chief, "Da first thing ve gonna do is fix da brakes on dat fricking truck!"
The alarm went out to all the fire departments for miles around. Even without the alarm the flames could be seen clearly in the night sky and everybody knew what it was and where it was.
When the volunteer fire fighters stated appearing on the scene, the company president Luke Baluk rushed to the fire chief's 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 arrived and the situation was desperate since it endangered the Swiss fudge factory just down the road and the ashes were coating the surface of the best trout pond in the county.
As the new volunteer 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. It was hopeless even with their combined efforts, nobody could enter the plant.
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 entirely of
Norwegians between the ages of 65 to 85. They were the only ones who knew how to run this old truck of theirs so by default they were the fire department for Ringerike township.
To everyone's amazement, that little run-down 1890's steam driven fire engine rolled right past all the newer sleek engines that were parked outside the plant. It didn't even slow down but drove straight into the middle of the inferno.
Outside the other firemen watched as the old Norwegians jumped off right into the middle of the fire and fought it back on all sides. It was a stellar superhuman performance, an effort never seen before by any of these youngsters most of them well under 40 years of age.
Within a short time, the gamle mannskap had extinguished the fire and had saved the secret formulas.
The grateful chemical company president announced that for such a brave and astounding 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 85-year-old fire chief, "Da first thing ve gonna do is fix da brakes on dat fricking truck!"