April 17--Jim Plourde, a stocky, fourth-year Jamaica Plain firefighter, was expecting to deal with a few fainting runners or minor bumps and bruises when he worked a detail at the marathon finish line.
But his carefree day turned into a nightmare when bombs blew up just feet away and he was thrust into an unimaginable bloodbath inside a Boylston Street candy store.
"I crawled through the scaffolding. It was an absolutely horrid scene," he said. "There were so many people hurt, I was thinking, 'Who can I help first?' "
He came across a teenaged girl with a large leg wound that was being tended to by a civilian who tied a tourniquet to stem the bleeding.
"She was in a pool of blood," Plourde said. "She looked at me and said, 'I'm scared.' I said, 'I'll take care of you.' "
Plourde scooped her up and dashed her to a waiting ambulance. She was whisked to the hospital and survived.
The former EMT rushed back in and helped more victims before heading to the medical tent to triage severely injured victims.
"It was pretty much the worst things you'd expect to see," he said. "Things you'd expect to see on a battlefield, not at the Boston Marathon."
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