Hey, good morning. I'm Patricia Murphy. It's Saturday. This is Seattle now.

Today we're bringing you the best from the KUOW Newsroom.

You've probably noticed tiny bright red trucks scooting all around Seattle.

There are actually many Japanese fire trucks and people just love them.

Casey Martin reports on what makes these imports so cool.

Tonnelly Grutter used to work out of a Chevy Express fan. She and her mom run a Dahlia Flower Farm on Woodby Island.

On a regular basis, we'd be loading heavy tables and buckets and doing a lot of setup, pop-up

temps, all these different things. And it was very, very physical and it was hard on us.

They needed a change. That's when they discovered K-trucks, tiny Japanese pickups that have a very

small cab, but a large bed in the back. Grutter knew they had to get one, and not just any

K-truck. Specifically, the fire trucks come with a lot of racking and sort of accessories

built into them that are very suitable to farming. Old fire trucks shipped from Japan that look

nothing like American fire trucks.

These are small, no bigger than a minivan.

Not the fastest vehicles, they top out at 60 miles per hour, but tough and reliable.

And they're usually well maintained by fire departments with very low miles.

Many still have their lights, sirens, and a PA system.

Bruder says that comes in handy if they slow down traffic.

We're able to put on our lights as flashers, hop on our intercom, and let people know,

thanks for supporting local farms. This vehicle is slow and we will pull over when we can.

And it's cool because we can get on the intercom while we're driving.

That's not the only fire truck cruising around.

...