One dark night in the small town of West Haven, CT, 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 must be
saved. I will donate $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out and
delivers them to me'.

But the roaring flames and intense heat held the firefighters off. Soon
more fire departments had to be called in because the situation became
desperate. As more firemen arrived, the president shouted out 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 Derby,CT volunteer fire
department composed of Italian firefighters, all 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 their truck and
began to fight the fire with a performance that was as if they were fighting
to save their own lives. Within a short time, the Derby 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 upping 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 fil m. The 'on
camera' reporter asked the Italian fire chief, 'What are you going to do
with all that money?'

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