The neighbors near Mashawn Plummer’s Portage Park firehouse knew him because he often sat outside, a friendly presence at the station. He showed up early for his shifts, ready to do a job he was thrilled to have, friends and family recalled.

       Chicago Firefighter/EMT Mashawn Plummer of Engine 94. (Chicago Fire Department)

       Hundreds of Chicago firefighters joined family and friends on Thursday to lay Plummer to rest after he died in December battling an apartment fire on the Northwest Side. They remembered Plummer, 30, as a gentle giant who followed his dream in becoming a Chicago firefighter and EMT. He was an unapologetic mama’s boy, his family members said. He brought his best friend’s young daughters M&Ms when he visited them.

       “I am so honored I can call him my son,” his mother, Felicia Townsend, said.

       The crowd of mourners gathered at House of Hope Church on Chicago’s Far South Side for the service, where an American flag was lifted between two fire engine ladders. Inside, firefighters lined up and saluted Plummer’s casket, which was draped in a Chicago flag.

       Mayor Lori Lightfoot addressed the mourners, who included the Rev. Jesse Jackson and firefighters who paid their respects from out of state.

       “Firefighter Plummer was a son of the South Side,” Lightfoot said, eliciting applause as she praised the Chicago Fire Department as the greatest in the country.

       She lauded Plummer and other Chicagoans who “come into this world, grow up in our neighborhoods, and want to dedicate their life’s work to giving back to the communities and the city that they call home,” Lightfoot said.

       Jermaine Plummer and Felicia Townsend, the parents of firefighter Mashawn Plummer, are comforted after a final viewing of the casket at his funeral Jan. 6, 2022, at House of Hope Church. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

       Plummer had recently celebrated his one-year anniversary at the department, which he joined on Dec. 1, 2020. He was assigned to Engine 94 firehouse, at 5758 W. Grace St. in the Portage Park neighborhood.

       He “had shown incredible potential” during his year with the Fire Department, Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said.

       Nance-Holt described Plummer as a man who filled the room with his stature, laugh and smile.

       “Mashawn was a young man who went after what he wanted in life,” Nance-Holt said, “so let’s honor his life by helping others and not allowing obstacles to get in the way.”

       Plummer grew up in Englewood and loved the Discovery Channel, his family said. He could recite facts about insects and animals before he started preschool. He was educated at Chicago Public Schools, and was the first member of his family to attend college. He loved the Chicago Bears, good or bad, and had “Make Them All Proud” tattooed on his arm, family members said.

       He loved action figures and Marvel comic books, according to his aunt Gwendolyn Martin, who read his obituary at the ceremony. She said her nephew was a hero himself.

       “The world is a safer place because the CFD allowed a superhero to do what he loved,” she said.

       The Rev. Michael Simmons, who officiated the ceremony and delivered the eulogy, knew Plummer from childhood as a respectful boy.

       “He was a different kind of kid,” Simmons said. “I noticed his courage and his boldness at a very early age.”

       Members of the Chicago Fire Department salute the casket during the funeral of firefighter Mashawn Plummer on Jan. 6, 2022, at House of Hope Church. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

       As an adult, Plummer excitedly asked Simmons for a letter of recommendation to the fire academy, he said.

       Plummer died Dec. 21, days after he was injured battling a fire in the Belmont Central neighborhood. The blaze, which broke out after 2 a.m. in a basement, also killed a resident of the building, Eladio Gomez, 37, and injured two other people.

       Plummer called for help before he was pulled from the building, officials have said. He survived in the hospital for five days with family members by his side, following the Dec. 16 fire that was aggravated by high winds.

       A visitation for Plummer was held Wednesday.

       His cause and manner of death are still pending.

       mabuckley@chicagotribune.com

       oolander@chicagotribune.com

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