bravery is rewarded

One dark night outside a small town in Saskatchewan,
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 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.

From a distance, a lone siren was heard as another
fire truck came into sight.

It was the nearby Melville rural township volunteer fire department composed mainly of Ukrainians
over the age of 65.

To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine,
operated by these Ukrainians, 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 Ukrainian old timers jumped off and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before.

Within a short time, the Melville 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, Ukrainian 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 Nick Sputski, the 70-year-old fire chief,
"...da furst thing vee gonna do is fix da brakes on dat focking truck."