New London — A grim scene greeted the high school seniors when they walked out to the parking lot on a warm April morning: shattered glass, a crashed car and classmates injured, bleeding from open head wounds.

Firefighters arrived and began working to free the car’s occupants, police officers moved bystanders back and, shortly after, the LifeStar helicopter that transports severely injured victims to a hospital landed near the football field.

As the seniors watched in shock from the sidewalk, it began to dawn on them that the crash their classmates were involved in was fake — staged to demonstrate the perils of drinking and driving.

The mock crash was planned and carried out by New London High School senior Xavier Jones as part of his capstone project for the Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut.

“I wanted to do something new, something that people would remember. I wanted to make a difference in New London,” Jones said. “I wanted my classmates to see just how horrific the scene was. It makes you think, ‘What if that was me?’ or ‘What if that was my friend, or my brother or sister?’”

The message got across loud and clear, Jones said. Classmates told him the scene was eye-opening, and would make them think twice before drinking and driving or getting in a car with a drunk driver. Even a few teachers, Jones said, were in tears after watching the DVD he produced of his project.

In organizing the mock crash, Jones had the help of Fire Chief Henry E. Kydd Jr. and the rest of the New London Fire Department, where Jones began working as an intern last year.

Now Jones, 18, has his sights set on becoming a full-fledged member of his hometown fire department.

[naviga:iframe width="100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y4L94Slj6MY" height="240" frameborder="0"] [/naviga:iframe]

“The question pretty much everyone asks me at school or even if I’m just walking down the street is ‘Why would you want to be a fireman? When everyone is running out, you’re running in,’” he said. “That’s something you can’t explain. I still can’t explain it; that urge, that rush in an emergency when someone is needing your help.”

Jones, who moved to New London from Baton Rouge, La., when he was about 3 years old and now lives on Ocean Avenue, said he has been interested in firetrucks since he was a small child and now wants to serve his city.

“I’ve always had a sense of doing good for my community and then others will follow,” he said.

At the start of the school year, Jones met Kydd after the chief spoke to a group of students at the high school about public safety. Jones already had graduated from the New London Police Youth Academy, but wanted to get involved with the fire service, too.

“When I met Chief Kydd, he gave me his card and as soon as I got that card in my hand, I ran with it,” Jones said. “I emailed him and I called him a few times and I kept being persistent with it.”

Soon, Jones met with Kydd and arranged to volunteer as an intern for the department, a stint that was to last three months. But Jones has now been working with the fire department — doing everything from dressing fire hydrants at fire scenes to washing the dishes after a firehouse meal — for about nine months and is deciding between joining the department as a full-time firefighter or going to Utica College to study construction management after graduation.

In addition to his service with the fire department, Jones is also a first team Eastern Connecticut Conference all-star in cross country and works part time for Cross Sound Ferry.

“I would take 12 of him. Xavier is a wonderful young man; I’m very happy he is our intern,” Kydd said. “He’s very interested in the fire service and we’re going to help him out the best we can so in the future he may be part of the New London Fire Department.”

Jones and Kydd have developed a strong bond, and Jones, whose father died when he was a toddler, said the influence Kydd has had on his life is second only to that of his mother.

“He’s basically a big father figure in my life,” Jones said of the chief. “It feels like I have a father on my shoulder looking over me.”

Though he is the new guy and “the kid” at the firehouse, Jones said it took just a few shifts to feel the bond of brotherhood between firefighters. At the firehouse, Jones said, he has a second loving family.

“I’m like their younger brother. That’s how our relationship is, it’s not like a love-hate relationship, it’s pure love,” he said. “With every family, you have your ups and downs, but here it seems like we have no downs.”

Jones even gets in on some of the firehouse high jinks, like the time he placed a large snowball on the chest of a sleeping Lt. Rocco Basilica, ensuring a cold and wet wakeup call for the lieutenant.

Basilica said Jones would be a valuable addition to the city’s fire department — despite the prank — because he would be serving his own community and protecting his neighbors.

“He has the value of knowing the people and knowing the streets,” Basilica, president of the city’s Firefighters Union Local 1522, said. “To grow up in New London and to be part of the fabric of the community, you can’t buy that kind of experience.”

Jones said it is important for him to lead by example and to act as a good role model for his young cousins, his peers and the community at large.

“I don’t follow people, I let my leadership affect others,” Jones said. “Being a leader in the community actually affects a lot of people, not just one or two, but it can affect your whole community.”

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung