Another old edit:
One dark night outside a small Minnesota town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant. It quickly erupted into massive flames and an 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."
Try as they may, however, the roaring flames held the firefighters off and, 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.
In the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was from a rural township volunteer fire company composed mainly of immigrant Norwegians over the age of 65. To everyone's amazement, this little run-down fire engine passed right by 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 Norwegian firefighters jumped off amidst the flames and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before. Within a short time, these Norwegian 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. He walked over to personally thank each of the brave, elderly Norwegian fire fighters.
The local TV news reporters rushed in, having captured the incredible event on film, and asked, "What are you going to do with all that money?"
"Vell," said Olie Larsen, the 70-year-old fire chief, "Da furst t'ing vee doo is fix da brakes on dat dang truck!"