One night, just outside a small town in The Irish Republic, a fire started inside a US owned petro-chemical plant. In the blink of an eye, it exploded into massive flames. The alarm went out to all fire departments for miles around.
When the first fire-fighters appeared on the scene, the American manager of the chemical company rushed to the fire chief and said, "All our secret formulas are in the vault in the centre of the plant. They must be saved. I'll give 20,000 Euros to the fire-fighters that brings them out intact." However, the roaring flames held the fire-fighters off.
Soon more fire departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As the fire engines arrived, the manager shouted out that the offer was now 50,000 Euros to the firemen who could save the company's secret files. Though the fire-fighters tried to enter the fire-ravaged plant, the fierce flames again kept them at bay.
From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire engine came speeding into sight. “That’s the local auxiliary fire engine, and is mainly manned by volunteers of 65 years or older.” The chief fire officer told the manager. “It’ll do no good!” However, to everyone's amazement, the old, battered fire engine roared right past all the sleek, newer engines that were parked outside the plant. Without even slowing down, it drove straight into the middle of the inferno.
Standing outside, the other firemen watched in disbelief as the old timers jumped off their ancient fire engine in the middle of the fire and fought it back on all sides. It was a performance and effort never seen before. To everyone’s astonishment, the old timers had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas.
The grateful chemical manger announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to 100,000 Euros, and walked over to thank each of the brave fire fighters personally.
The local TV news reporter rushed in to capture the event on film, and asked the first officer of the fire engine, “ What are you going to do with all that money your crew have so bravely earned?”
"Well," said Paddy Murphy, the 70-year-old leader, "Da foist ting we're gonna do is fix da brakes on dat foiking engine!"