I have great respect for firefighters … and police officers, too.

But this post is about Amarillo’s firefighters, who answer the alarm and rush to offer assistance, whether it’s putting out fires, deliver first aid to those who are stricken or assist a resident with a complicated installation.

Here’s what happened this morning.

My wife is providing child care for a little boy; he just turned 2. His parents have delivered a car seat for us to use. It’s one of those fancy-shmancy devices that requires a level of expertise neither of us possesses. It’s been a very long time since our sons were small enough to require a car seat and, indeed, when they were that small, car seats weren’t even required by law. We had them anyway, but they weren’t as complicated as this one.

Our little guy’s mommy told us we could take to a fire station and the firemen would install it.

I did. She was right. A young firefighter took about 15 minutes to install the seat in our big ol’ pickup. He walked me through the mechanics of hooking up the belts to all the fasteners tucked in the rear seat of the truck. He showed me how to cinch it tight, using my body weight to fasten the car seat snugly inside.

The other bit of good news is that we now are equipped with a car seat to haul around our granddaughter. We just have to be sure to drive the truck to see her in Allen.

Frankly, I didn’t know this service was available to residents of our city. I’m glad I know it now.

Oh, and the firefighter who assisted this morning is the father of three kids, the youngest of whom is 5. He said he’s on the “downward side” of needing to use these high-tech car seats.

His experience came in handy this morning. Thank you for the assistance, young man — and thanks for all you and your colleagues do to make our city safe.