All proceeds will be used to help those living in our area that have survived or are currently fighting cancer. We will work with the Cancer Center at Phoenixville Hospital to identify survivors in need of assistance. During our first Cancer Awareness Initiative in 2012, money raised was donated to three local residents.

What fire departments had at the time was a strainer they could put into a water source so a truck could suck the water up and spit it out. But those strainers were heavy, cumbersome designs that often got clogged up.

"It was a safety hazard," Kozey said. "You can't run out of water once you start."

For several months, Kozey tinkered with a design until he perfected a self-leveling floating strainer. It was light enough for one person to handle. He got a patent on it, and fire companies in the area started buying the device. Then he built something firefighters could use to break through the ice to get to water in the winter. He got a patent on that long-handled ice strainer.

Things just snowballed from there. From strainers, he moved on to other firefighting equipment. Today, the company sells a host of other fire equipment, irrigation, water works, and industrial products for customers. They have a $4.5 million contract with the government to fight forest fires. Their products are sold in the United States, Canada, and internationally. Most of the fire departments in the area use Kochek products and equipment.

Lt. Josh Lange says, "It's important because the wear and tear on wildland apparatus is a little higher than what you see on like our big Type 1 engines, you know, we call them pavement queens, the big one, because they pretty much stay to the concrete. These ones are going through the woods and up and down dozer line and maybe even long distances like sometimes we go to California and throughout the country to different fires, so it's important to keep them up to date and just have the best equipment we can."

The car side-swiped the engine, causing damage to its driver’s side and damaged the exhaust and side panel of the engine.

No one was injured.