Newark Mayor Feared He'd Die in Fire Rescue

When Corey Booker rushed in to rescue his neighbor from a burning building, he wasn't sure he'd make it back alive. "I did not feel bravery, I felt terror," the Newark mayor said during a press conference today. "I really didn't think we were going to get out of there." But Booker "showed his true grit," said the fire director. After Booker's security detail alerted his neighbors to the fire and evacuated them, they said their daughter remained inside, the Star-Ledger reports.

Booker headed upstairs, where security officers tried to prevent him from going further. "I was trying to hold his belt, but he gave me an order," said one. Surrounded by flames in the kitchen, Booker believed he might die, he told the press. "I was looking down, finding somewhere to breathe (and) I heard her," he said. As he carried her over his shoulder, "every time I breathed in, I just a felt a blackness," he said. "We were just fighting for our lives." Firefighters found him bent over outside the building. Zina Hodge, 47, is now in "serious condition," a hospital rep says; her mother is optimistic. (More Newark stories.)