GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — I didn’t want to be a fireman when I was a kid. My dream was to be a professional baseball player. I had a couple of issues, though, that prevented me from fulfilling that dream.

One is that I lacked the natural talent needed to play hardball for a living; the other is that I was too lazy to work hard enough to improve on the talent that I did possess.

Fighting fires wasn’t on my radar.

It took me a good while to understand and appreciate the firefighters’ ability, their courage and their instincts. I certainly get it now.

First responders are my heroes. Police officers, firefighters, paramedics/emergency medical techs all have earned exalted status in my book.

I’ve been able to use this blog to proclaim my admiration for those who run toward danger. I will do so again with this post.

We came to the Sierra Nevada to spend time with family members and to relax in the woods. We didn’t realize when we made our plans that our Nevada County Fairgrounds RV park would become a staging area for firefighters struggling against forest fires that — according to one of the approximately 1,100 firefighters on duty here — has burned about 14,000 acres.

We have spared no expression of thanks and gratitude to the young men and women we’ve seen moving through our RV park. I’m delighted that some of them have expressed their own appreciation in return for getting a good word.

I extend those expressions of gratitude just to get a thank-you in return. I do so because I mean it with all sincerity.

My police officer friends know how much I appreciate their work. I know many more cops than I do firefighters. My work as a journalist in Oregon and Texas exposed me more to police officers than firefighters.

Now that I am a “civilian,” having retired from journalism, I have been able to watch firefighters up close as they do their dangerous work. Our travels across the country have given my wife and me the opportunity to tell these young heroes how much we appreciate all they do.

They’ve got their work cut out for them here in Grass Valley. What’s more, they damn sure have a huge fight on their hands over yonder in Santa Rosa, which has been incinerated by the flames.

These young heroes deserve all our thanks.