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Marty [:)] I was going to email you this story but then thought I might as well put it here and let everyone laught at me. [:D] It wasn't funny at the time but it sure is now. [:D] First a little background info. I was a volunteer in a rural fire department. Some of the equipment was bought new but some was hand me down stuff from the Conservation Department (basically army surplus trucks with welded tanks in the bed and a glorified lawn mower engine to run the pump). The radios were surpus WWII, they might work and they might not. When they did work your range to broadcast could change because of your location. We were dispatched out of the sheriff's office. The truck I will memtion in the funny story was a 1965 GMC which was bought new and equipped fairy good. It was a 4 speed with a hi-lo axle and the pump was PTO driven, therefore, you could pump and move at the game time--great for fighting grass fires. The truck had a cage mounted on the front just for fighting grass fires (hay fields or other tall grasses). Now the story. (You know I haven't told a Jim Story in a while [;)] ). Our fire department was dispatched from the sheriff's office but we were also a membership department and the members had a special number to call for help. This number rang 5 different phones in various homes at the same time. One phone was in the local gas station and the gas station owner was a loyal member of the fire department. When a fire call came he would run next door and get his wife to run the station while he was on the fire call. One day while I was at the station the firephone rang. He answered it, we had a fire. While he went to get his wife I went down and unlocked the firehouse, got the truck started and pulled out of the firehouse. He was just getting there when I got the truck out. There we were lol , just the two of us headed to the call. As I drove he told me the situation. A new house had been build out in the middle of a hay field. The grass around the house itself was mowed short, but the hay stood waist tall. There wasn't much of a yard. Now to make matters worse (which always seems to happen given the nature of fire) they were burning trash ON A WINDY DAY. Yelp, you guessed it, it started the hay field on fire with the house smack dab in the middle of the hay field. It was roughly a five minute drive to the fire (not bad for being a rural area). While my fellow firefighter got a hose around to the cage I pulled the correct knobs to engage the pump and allow water into his hose. As I drove around the fire he hosed it. Given the fact that the hay was waste high we could knock the flame down but not totally put it out. After several rounds of the field I knew we would need help. I tried to radio the sheriff's office but being in a low spot couldn't reach them. I yelled to the lady from the house to go in and call the sheriff's office and tell them we needed help. Soon we ran out of water. I knew exactly where the nearest plug was and drove to it. The truck would only fill from the passenger side and the plug was on the other side of the road. So I had to turn into a side road, back up onto the first road, then pull up to the plug. I got the wrench out as he got the filler hose. (The filler hose is a rigid hose and not very flexible.) We hooked up and I turn the nut for the water to flow through the plug into the hose and into the truck. NO WATER, the plug was dry. P A N I C . [:0] So we unhooked from the plug, threw the filler hose on top of the truck, but did not secure it in its normal location since we were paniced and now in a big hurry to race to the next nearest plug. As I basically said before, anytime there is a fire involved anything that can go wrong, DOES GO WRONG. The nearest plug was behind us not in front of us. So once again I had to turn the truck, by backing into the side road, then back on the other road. The next plug was about a 3 or 4 minute drive. Again, as you would have it, the plug was on the opposite side of the road and I AGAIN had to turn the truck to take on water. While I was getting the wrench my friend was to get the filler hose. GUESS WHAT (wrong, we had water this time) NO FILLER HOSE [:0] So we had to drive back down the road looking for our filler hose. We found it close to the FIRST plug. Once again, I had to turn the truck around and drive back down the road to the plug that had water. Now all this time we are both worried about the house going up in flames from the hay field. [:(] So, we finally get water and head back to the fire. When we arrived we found about 3 or 4 other firetrucks had responded from our neighboring departments and the hay field fire was just about out. We didn't pump any more water at that fire. We talked to our fellow firefighters about our ordeal and everyone had a laugh over it. They now knew the problem with the plug that was dry. We drove back to our little town, put the truck up, and drank a coke. Days later we found out that the "bad plug" had been shut off because of constant vandalism. The water line owners had installed a special valve that also had a special tool to open and close the valve. We actually had the tool on the firetruck but didn't know we did. We called ourselves "The Two STOOGES" that day. [:D] The story you have read is true. I wish I could say the names have been changed to protect the innocent (ME). [:D] [:D] [:D] Marty Locomutt Tree I hope you enjoyed this story. Trust me every word is true. [:)] [;)] [:D]
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