By Michael P. Mayko
The Connecticut Post
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Throughout the evening they came — bringing candles, balloons and memories of a life that ended too early.
Shortly before 3:30 p.m. Jimmie Jones, a 34-year-old off-duty veteran firefighter, lost control of his Camaro, hit a truck parked on Bishop Avenue, careened along a fence at the Board of Education Building Operations parking lot and became wedged against a utility pole.
Firefighters had to extricate Jones and a man who was in the passenger seat. A third occupant, identified as Jones’ teenage son, was in the back seat and suffered severe leg injuries.
Jones was pronounced dead at the scene. The unidentified front-seat passenger was reported in critical condition at Bridgeport Hospital. Jones’ son, who witnesses said was conscious and called his mother from the scene, was also taken to Bridgeport Hospital with a broken leg and severe cuts.
“I reached in and tried to get his (Jones’) wrist to check for a pulse,” said a middle-aged man who declined to give his name. “But the car was so mangled, I couldn’t do it.”
A woman who lives across the street said she heard a loud bang and rushed out.
“The teenage boy’s leg was all cut up and bleeding,” she said. “He wanted to call his mother. ... It was a disaster. The car was wedged against the pole. Its tires were on the fence.”
By early evening, several of Jones’ family members and friends began bringing candles and balloons to the site. They tied the balloons to the pole and set the candles in a hole at the bottom.
“He was a great guy, a great father,” said a tearful Tamara Dyce, Jones’ fiancee.
“He was such a loving, caring person,” added Tameka King, Dyce’s cousin. “He loved going to the park with his kids and helping people. When he wasn’t working, he’d be helping Tamara with her event planning and coordinating business.”
A friend, Farrah Boston, lit six candles.
Dyce owns and operates Sweet Life by Dyce on Knowlton Street.
Jones served for more than eight years as a firefighter, according to Av Harris, a spokesman for Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim. He was assigned to Ladder Truck 6, stationed at the Central Avenue firehouse.
His father is a retired Bridgeport firefighter.
RIP to our fellow Bridgeport Firefighter Jimmie Jones. Please keep his family and the Bridgeport FD in your thoughts and prayers!
— Greenwich Fire L1042 (@Greenwich_Fire_) May 15, 2016
Harris said one of Jones’ colleagues from the Central Avenue firehouse extricated him and performed CPR. But Jones had died. Witnesses described seeing signs of multiple injuries on his body.
Ganim, along with Police Chief A.J. Perez and Fire Chief Brian Rooney, went to the scene.
Police accident reconstruction specialists spent several hours there. Shards of glass, an automobile drive shaft and pieces of the vehicle’s body were strewn around the scene.
“This is all very, very sad,” Perez said Saturday night. “It’s so tragic.”
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