Norwegian Firefighters

[Emery]

One dark night outside a small town in Minnesota, 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 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 more 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.

Still no takers.

From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into
sight. It was the nearby rural township volunteer fire company composed
mainly of Norwegians over the age of 65. They had fled Europe after WW2,
and formed their own town.

To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine, operated by
these old Norwegians, passed all the newer sleek engines parked outside
the plant, and drove straight into the middle of the inferno.

Outside, the other firemen watched as the Norwegian old timers jumped
off and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before.
Within a short time, the Norse old timers had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas.

The grateful chemical company president joyfully 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, though elderly, Norse firefighters.

The local TV news reporters rushed in after capturing the event on film
asking, "What are you going to do with all that money?"

"Vell," said Olee Larsen, the 70-year-old fire chief, "da furst ting
veedoo is fix da brakes on dat %&@*ing truck!"