Waterville Family Uses Syrup To Extinguish Boiler Fire

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A sticky situation turned even stickier after a fire broke out in a small southern Minnesota town.

There was no water around in Waterville, so people had to get creative in fighting the flames. A father and his son noticed their neighbor's boiler had caught fire.

The family, who owns a syrup company, drove over their sap tanker to help put out the fire. They said that's all they had for liquid at that moment and used about 400 to 500 gallons of syrup to put it out.

"It wasn't a big deal, it was the neighbor's place and we know them so it was worth putting out. It could've went anywhere, it was a windy enough day, anything could've happened. To a lot of people it's a lot of gallons, but to us we collect 50,000 gallons a day," Tyler Hering, the syrup company vice president, said.

Despite the loss, the Hering family is doing well is continuing to sell their pure maple syrup.