By MARY BETH MAASSEN

In Spring 2000 I went on a bit of a shopping spree at the Dillard’s 70 percent off end-of-season sale. I bought new North Face ski jackets for the whole family—two adults and three teenagers. I spent hundreds of dollars, but I saved over a thousand dollars and I thought it was a great deal — and we would no longer have to sport our trendy ‘80s color-block ski gear we had been wearing for years (yeah!).

Giddy with excitement, I hid the new jackets in the back of the coat closet until I had an appropriate moment to share the joyous news of my tremendous savings with my husband. When it came to my spending (or how I see it, my “saving”), we (still) have a tendency to interpret the situation differently.

A few days later the Cerro Grande Fire was raging in the Jemez and everyone in Los Alamos was keeping a wary eye on the mountain. I came home and the contents of the coat closet were strewn across the couch and floor. The new jackets were gone, and I was baffled.

Then my son walked through the front door and announced, “They needed winter gear for the firefighters and I found all these jackets we never wear in the back of the closet, so I took them all to the collection. Don’t worry! I kept our good stuff!”

And just like that the new gorgeous jackets were gone, we all wore color-block ski gear for a few more years, and I imagine there were five very happy firefighters—for a few minutes anyway.

The folks of Los Alamos are a responsible and responsive bunch and when the Cerro Grande Fire headed toward town and it came time to evacuate, we did. And 11 years later when the Las Conchas Fire blew toward Los Alamos, we evacuated again.

Last summer when the producers of the movie Only the Brave were casting roles for evacuees, they had a lot of calm, well-organized, and experienced Los Alamos evacuees to choose from.

Only the Brave is the tragic story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and the wildfire that took their lives. For all first responders, for those who endured life-changing losses after our New Mexico fires, and those who are affected by the fires that are still raging in California today, this is going to be a difficult movie to watch. But I think it is important to tell this story, and I am proud of the role Los Alamos played in the production.

First responders, soldiers, and anyone who serves on the front line and risks their life for the rest of us, aren’t doing it because they expect to be thanked, to be given the shirt off your back, or even the coat from your closet. Many of them serve because they are called, they are driven to make the world a little safer, and because they would want someone to do the same for their loved ones. To each of you I say, thank you for your service.

Only the Brave opens Friday at the Reel Deal Theater.