Newark Mayor Cory Booker was taken to a hospital last night after he rushed into his neighbor’s burning home and helped pull two people to safety, a spokeswoman said.
The drama began at 9:50 p.m. when Booker arrived home after a television appearance and saw the house next door on fire.
The Fire Department had not yet arrived, so Booker did his best Superman impression and sprang into action, entering the house and rescuing a woman trapped in a bedroom.
Today on “CBS This Morning,” Booker said that he actually had to convince his security detail, including Detective Alex Rodriguez, whom he was with, to let him in the house, and noted that their pounding on the door actually alerted the residents that their house was on fire.
Initially, Booker and Rodriguez helped an elderly woman out, and she said her daughter was still upstairs.
Describing how he ran inside after the family’s daughter was yelling “I’m upstairs,” Booker told The Star-Ledger. “I suddenly had the realization that I can’t find this woman. I look behind me and see the flames and I think ‘I’m not going to get out of here.’ Suddenly I was at peace with the fact that I was going to jump out the window.”
Booker elaborated on this on CBS, saying that when he first entered the house, he wasn’t thinking. Then after he saw the smoke, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to find and save her, saying he had a “religious moment,” thinking he was trapped and wouldn’t even survive.
The woman called out, he said, and Booker grabbed her from a bed and threw her over his shoulder.
“I punched through the kitchen and the flames and that’s when I saw Detective Rodriguez. He grabbed her as well and we got her down the stairs and we both just collapsed outside,” Booker said.
Booker said Friday morning that after he grabbed her he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get back out of the kitchen because of the fire.
“Honestly it was terrifying and to look back and see nothing but flames and to look in front of you and see nothing but blackness,” Booker said.
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.
He also noted on CBS that he was surprised when he got home by how burned his clothes were.
Booker’s thumb and first finger of his right hand were bandaged during his TV appearance.
The woman Booker helped save is in stable condition with second-degree burns to her back and neck.
Booker said on CBS that “didn’t have much of a shirt on,” leading to her severe burns.
Three members of Booker’s security detail were also being treated Thursday night.
“Thanks 2 all who are concerned,” Booker tweeted following the rescue.
“We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok.”
About an hour later, Booker tweeted, “Thanks to Det. Alex Rodriguez who helped get all of the people out of the house.”
On CBS Friday morning, Booker said his experience has given him a new perspective on life, saying “things feel a lot more clear.”
It also enriched his respect for firefighters, with the Newark mayor joking that after his time battling a blaze, he’s “ill-equipped to do firefighter negotiations. I’ll be like, ‘give them everything!'”
With NewsCore and AP