Missoula Rural Fire Department Holds Child Car Seat Clinic

On the second Saturday of every month, the Missoula Rural Fire Department holds a child safety seat installation clinic to help parents and grandparents to properly and safely install their child car seats.

Lieutenant Jason Butler explained the purpose of the event.

“Today, we’re checking car seats for families to make sure they have the correct car seat, they’re using it and installing it properly,” said Butler. “The most important thing is just to follow directions. Just open the owner’s manual, reading it and finding out how to do it properly.”

Butler said his installation trainers know the various tricks to make sure the car seat is properly installed.

“I’ve been doing this for 12 years and some of the tricks include how to pull on that seat belt or how to pull on that lower anchor attachment to get it tight and other little tricks that we’ve learned,” he said. “It’s a free service that the Missoula Rural Fire District provides on the second Saturday of every month.”

Butler said there are free or reduced-cost car seats available for those who qualify.

“The Missoula City County Health Department offers reduced-rate car seats to families in need,” he said. “We are one of the agencies that provide those seats to those families. If they go to the health department and go through the screening then we can get them taken care of on the second Saturday of each month.”