Please excuse the rough language in this story...
I'm a retired Firefighter and Kirby will be an old retired firfighter one of these days, so anyway cut us some slack and enjoy..
I origionally heard this story in 1977 with a decidedly Southern Texas flavor to it...
One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant and in a blink it exploded into flames. The alarm went out to fire departments from miles around.
When the 1st volunteer firefighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to 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 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 secret files.
From a distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was a nearby rural township volunteer fire company composed entirely of men over the age of 65. To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine 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 old-timers jumped off the truck and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before!
Within minutes, the 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 rewards to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave, though elderly, firefighters.
The local TV news reporter rushed in after capturing the event on film asking, "What are you going to do with all that money?"
"Well", said the 70-year old Fire Chief, "the first thing we are going to do is to fix the damn brakes on that truck!"