Hello, I’m Barney the Fire Truck. 

The Old Town Fire Department calls me Truck 41.

I had a great home for a long time, in the fire house right next door to Old Town Day Care. 

The kids played outside every day. I flashed the lights on my roof to say hello. They loved to ring my bell.

It was my job to keep everyone safe. I helped put out smoky fires and rescued people...and pets, too. My 100-foot ladder reached really high. 

Whenever there was trouble, I rushed to help.

But then something happened that I didn’t know how to fix.

The Old Town Day Care closed last month. A moving truck took all the toys to a new building next to the park. The kids will be happy there, but I was sad to see them leave.

I was sad when firefighters moved away, too. The fire chief always said, “Think about good things and everything will be OK.”

I thought about all those happy kids and tried to forget how much I missed them.

But things got worse. A city inspector came to look at my fire house. He said, “This building is old and it’s not safe any more. It will have to close. And this old truck will be retired.”

“What does 'retired' mean?” I wondered. “What will happen to me? Where will I go?”

It was even harder to think about good things after this bad news.

Then a tall man with a funny accent came to my fire house. His name was Stephane. He looked at my ladder and my tools. He looked at my fenders and wheels. He revved my siren and flashed my lights.

I worried. “Will I be sold to a junk yard for scrap?” “Will my parts become spare parts to fix other old fire trucks?”

I tried to stay calm and thought about the fire chief’s words again. “Think about good things and everything will be OK.”