Growing up with two firefighters and EMS volunteers as parents, it came as no shock to Peter and Janet Plourde that their son Jimmy would become a firefighter himself.
“It wasn’t unusual to see us jump up during dinner (to answer a call),” Janet said. “He really grew up with the responsibility to give back to the community.”
So when they saw their son’s photo appear splashed across the television screen carrying an injured girl away from a blast site at the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday, April 15, they were nervous, but not surprised.
“Oh my God, it was shocking and it was startling to see your own child in that type of framework. And yet I have to be honest … I would have almost expected that was Jimmy. He was always the one right there to do what needed to be done,” Janet said.
Jimmy, a Colonie Central High School and Siena College graduate, began his firefighting career by volunteering at age 16 with the Town of Colonie Shaker Road-Loudonville Explorer Post. He also tried to volunteer throughout the community in any way he could. In support of his sister who has lupus, Jimmy raised almost $28,000 at Siena for a lupus fundraiser, his mother said.
“Jimmy is probably one of the most kind, sincere young men people have ever met,” Janet said. “Jimmy just volunteers for everything.”
After graduating from Siena with a degree in political science, he moved to Boston to teach history but “wanted to do more to give back,” his mother said. He started working as a paramedic in Boston and now, at 35, works as a firefighter and lives in Boston with his wife and daughter.
“Sometimes we used him for practical tests for EMT … he begrudgingly got involved in that,” Peter said. “It obviously ingrained in him something, because now he’s a Boston fireman.”
When he first heard of the explosion in Boston, Peter said he immediately texted his son asking if he was working, but didn’t receive a response. Shortly afterwards, Peter learned about the photo of his son spreading all over social media.
“Social media is unbelievable. I had every TV on in my house. I was like a multimedia crazy man,” Peter said. “I talked to his wife during the event and they said he’s safe, but he’s very busy. That’s the most we knew about him during the whole event.”
Although they were comforted by the photo of their son, like the rest of the nation, the Plourdes were unsure if there would be more attacks. Peter said he wasn’t able to hear directly from his son until 9 that evening.
“When I tried to reach him, I spoke to his wife and she said he wants to sit down … decompress,” Peter said. “He’s having a tough time putting this all together. He saw some things that only soldiers overseas see. It was pretty dramatic. A lot of people are going to be hurting from this for awhile.”
Peter said he was proud of his son for jumping so quickly into action, something that seems to be innate within volunteers and first responders.
“We want to run to the danger, not run away from the danger. What it is that makes the people in our group do that, I have no idea,” Peter said. “We want to help. We have something inside of us that sparks us.”