San Antonio Valley, South Sonoma County, Petaluma, California

"The Great Novato Chemical Company Fire"

One night, a number of years ago in Novato, a fire started in the local chemical company and quickly involved the entire plant. A security patrol called in the alarm and the Novato Fire Department responded. When the company president arrived he told the chief, "All our secret formulas are in the office vault and must be saved. I will give $10,000 to whoever gets them out".

After multiple additional alarms and everyone fighting the fire for a considerable time with limited success, the San Antonio Volunteer Fire Department was toned out for Mutual Aid. Soon a siren was heard approaching on 101 from the north. It was 9580, the volunteer department's only type 1 engine. To everyone's amazement, the engine raced past all of them and drove straight into the middle of the inferno. Outside the local paid firefighters watched as the volunteers jumped off their rig and begin to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before! Within a short time they had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas.

The grateful president joyfully announced that for such a super-human feat, he was upping the reward to $20,000. He walked over to personally thank the brave men who were doing this job only out of a sense of duty to their community. KPIX Channel 5 reporters rushed in with their camera and asked the driver, "What are you going to do with all that money"? Well, said Engineer Joe Tognalda, the first thing we should probably do is get the brakes fixed on 9580.... :>)