In a flash, `a good kid’ stolen from his family
By DAN HIGGINS Staff Writer
Albany Times-Union
WATERFORD — The teenager who was killed when lightning struck a family picnic Wednesday was just steps away from a vacationing firefighter who tried frantically to save his life.
But not even having an expert at CPR nearby was enough to save Brandon Jones, 17.
Jones, of Troy, was with his father, brothers and other relatives at a picnic when some of the group went swimming off a boat launch on the Erie Canal near Lock 6 in Waterford.
“It was a hot day and they just wanted to get out of the heat and go down by the water,” said Brandon’s mother, Terry Simmons Jones of Petersburgh.
Brandon Jones was the father of a 1-year-old girl named Emma Rose Jones and was working on his GED through the Berlin Central School District at the time of his death, his mother said.
“He was a good kid. He was a father of a little girl,” she said.
Terry Jones, who works as a newspaper carrier for the Times Union, said she wanted her son remembered as someone who was adored by his family. Besides his mother and daughter, he is survived by his father, Robert Jones of Troy; two younger brothers, Robbie and Brian; two sets of grandparents; and aunts, uncles and cousins.
Terry Jones was not with her son when he died because she was dealing with another death in the family. Wednesday morning, her grandmother passed away, and Terry was busy making funeral arrangements when she received a call that she needed to get to St. Mary’s Hospital in Troy right away.
Michael Boehm, chief of the Eggertsville Hose Co. in western New York, began CPR on Jones seconds after the young man col lapsed, Boehm recalled Thursday.
“I heard a `crack.’ It was terrifying. I just happened to look up, and I saw him go down,” he said.
Boehm is traveling from Portland, Maine, to Buffalo in the 40-foot cabin cruiser Ellen Leigh with his brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Charlyn Boehm. The trio had just cleared Lock 6 and decided to tie up at the state boat launch, known informally as Al Cathy’s Marina, to wait out the storm.
The Boehms, who lingered in Waterford Thursday with engine trouble, said they exchanged some small talk with Jones’ group when the storm came roaring in.
“I asked them if they had a bag of ice,” Boehm said. “They seemed real nice and like they were having a good time.”
The water of the Erie Canal was getting choppy, so Boehm and his brother went outside to adjust the lines, tying the Ellen Leigh to the wall of the boat launch. That’s when the lightning struck.
“I just ducked and then I dove for the boat,” said Richard Boehm. “It could have been us.” Boehm said the Jones family was huddled together and headed for their car when the lightning hit.
Michael Boehm immediately began CPR on Jones, who had gone into cardiac arrest. He said it didn’t appear Jones suffered a direct hit, and there was no obvi ous evidence of lightning in the area, like scorch marks on the ground.
Police believe lightning struck a nearby steel bollard, a post used to secure the mooring lines of boats. Jones was about 10 feet from the water when he was struck.
It took an ambulance about 15 minutes to arrive on the scene, during which time Boehm, another bystander and Waterford police officers took turns trying to revive the teen. Another member of Jones’ group performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as Boehm gave instructions.
Meanwhile, rain poured and lightning hit the ground nearby.
"(The family) kept wondering what was taking the ambulance so long,” said Boehm. “I didn’t have time to get into it with them, but I understood. When you have a volunteer company, you have to get everyone to the station house and then send them out,” he said. “The police did arrive very quickly. I kept telling them, `They’ll be here soon.’ ”
Jones was pronounced dead at St. Mary’s Hospital.
Funeral services are being planned at the Connolly Funeral Home in Wynantskill.
Toni Diamond, the superintendent of the Berlin Central School District, said the school district offered its “heartfelt sorrow” to the Jones family.
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