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One dark night in the township of Whakatane, New Zealand, a fire started inside a local chemical plant associated with the paper mill industry and in a blink of an eye it exploded into massive flames.

The alarm went out to all the volunteer firemen for miles around.



When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company manager rushed to the senior fireman and said, "All our secret formulas are in a large grey steel safe in the centre of the plant. They must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out intact."

But the roaring flames held the fire-fighters off. Soon more units had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As the firemen arrived from Tauranga and all surrounding districts the manager shouted out that the offer was now $100,000 to the fire station who could bring out the company's secret files. But still none of the firemen could get through.

From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was the nearby Taneatua Maori rural township volunteer fire company, composed mainly of Maoris over the age of 65.



To everyone's amazement, that little run-down fire engine roared right past all the newer sleek engines that were parked outside the plant. Without even slowing down it drove straight into the middle of the inferno..

Outside, the other firemen watched as the Maori old timers jumped off right in the middle of the fire and fought it back on all sides.. It was a performance and effort never seen before. Within a short time, the old timers had extinguished the fire, and had saved the critical formulas.

The grateful chemical company manager 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 fire fighters.

The local TV3 reporter caught the “thank you” on film, and asked their chief, "What are you going to do with all that money?"

"Well," said Hohepa, the 70-year-old fire chief, "The first thing we gonna do is fix the brakes on this bl%#dy truck !