One dark night outside Mundare, a small town East of Edmonton, Alberta, a
fire started inside the local sausage plant and in a blink it exploded into
massive flames. The alarm went out to all the fire departments from miles
around. When the local volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the
sausage 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 and 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 from surrounding towns 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. Then, from a distance, a lone siren was heard as one
more fire truck came into sight. It was the nearby Smoky Lake rural township
volunteer fire department composed mainly of men of Ukrainian decent over
the age of 65. To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine,
operated by these men 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 and began to fight the fire
from the inside with a performance and effort never seen before. Within a
short time, the Smoky Lake old-timers had extinguished the fire and saved
the secret formulas.The grateful sausage 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, firefighters. The Edmonton TV news reporters rushed in after
capturing the event on film asking
"What are you going to do with all that money?"
" Vell," said Nickalus Sputski, the 70-year-old fire chief
"da furst thing vee gunta do is
fix da brakes on dah freaking trock."