[Karl/PA]

One dark night in the small town in Garfield , NJ ,
a fire started inside the local sausage factory.
In a blink the building was engulfed in flames.
The alarm went out to all the fire departments
for miles around.

When the first volunteer fire fighters appeared
on the scene, the sausage company president
rushed to the fire chief and said, 'All of our
secret sausage recipes are in the vault in the
center of the plant. They have to be saved,
so I will donate $50,000 to the fire company
that brings them out and delivers them to me.'

But the roaring flames held the firefighters off.
Soon more fire departments had to be called in
because the situation became desperate. As the
firemen arrived, the president that the offer to
extricate the secret recipes was now $100,000
to the fire department that could save them.

Suddenly from up the road, a lone siren was heard
as another fire truck came into sight. It was the
fire engine of the nearby Lodi , NJ . The volunteer
fire department composed mainly of Italian
firefighters over the age of 65.

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

Outside, the other firemen watched in amazement
as the Italian old timers jumped off and began to
fight the fire as if they were fighting to save their
own lives. Within a short time, the Lodi old timers
had extinguished the fire and saved the secret recipes.

The grateful sausage company president joyfully
announced that for such a superhuman accomplishment
he was raising the reward to $200,000, and walked
over to personally thank each of the brave elderly
Italian firefighters.

A TV news crew rushed in after capturing the event
on film. The 'on camera' reporter asked the Italian
fire chief,
'What are you going to do with all that money?'

'Wella,' said Chief Pasquale De Luccinelli,
the 70-year-old fire chief, 'de fursta tinga we gonnna
do isza fixa de brakes on dat fockinna truck!!'