Newark Mayor Cory Booker thought he may have died as he heroically rushed into a neighbor’s burning home Thursday night and saved the woman from a raging fire.
“I felt terror. It was very scary,” he said today at a news conference the outside the burned home.
“I consider myself very lucky,” he added. “There was a time I got through the kitchen and was searching for her and looked back and saw the kitchen in flames. It was really a frightening experience for me. I didn’t think we’d get out of there.
“So I feel just really grateful right now, very lucky to be here today.”
Booker rushed into the home Hawthorne Avenue in Newark at 9:30 p.m. yesterday to save neighbor Zina Hodge, 47.
“Angels got me to her,” said Booker.
After hearing an explosion, Booker went in over the strong objections of his security officer, Det. Alex Rodriguez.
“Det. Rodriguez and I had a bit of an altercation when he was following orders that is to always protect me. He was literally pulling me by the belt,” Booker said.
They finally entered the burning home and braved the flames after people who had gotten out told him that was woman inside.
A bandaged Cory Booker speaks to the media this morning. (Rich Schultz)
The Fire Department had not yet arrived, so Booker did his best Superman impression and sprang into action by locating Hodge, who was trapped in a bedroom.
“I feel really thankful to God because just when I was falling down trying to find somewhere to breathe I finally heard her and found an opening where I could grab her,” he said. “I grabbed her as quickly as I could and decided to go through the kitchen.
“She didn’t have much clothes on so she sustained more burns. I was holding her.”
He said that at one point he feared he couldn’t get back out.
“It looked like I couldn’t get back from where I came from. And I couldn’t breath. And it was a moment I felt very religious. I’ll put it that way,” he said, later adding: “I feel a sense of gratitude today to God I’m still here and still feeling kind of like I had my come to Jesus moment in my life.”
The Newark mayor also revealed he couldn’t breathe after he got outside.
He was treated and released from a hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation and second-degree burns to his hand.
Booker’s thumb and first finger of his right hand were bandaged today.
Booker also tweeted, “Thanks to Det. Alex Rodriguez who helped get all of the people out of the house.”
Hodge remains in serious condition at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.