Cory Booker Told to Risk Their lives in a Dramatic Rescue Fire Near Newark

At 9:30 p.m., the call came — a fire at 433 Hawthorne Ave.

At 9:35, when Newark firefighters arrived, they saw Mayor Cory Booker. He was doubled over, struggling to breathe. Rescue workers immediately treated him with oxygen.

But by 10:15, Booker, his right hand singed by second-degree burns, was tweeting that he had just saved his next door neighbor, Zina Hodge, from a kitchen fire and was on his way to University Hospital.

Though firefighters doused the flames in short order Thursday night, Booker, who also suffered smoke inhalation, fanned a conflagration of media attention today, elevating his social media cachet from the Oprah-dubbed "rockstar mayor" to somewhere between Chuck Norris and Superman.

Booker gave a handful of interviews Thursday night, then appeared on on "CBS This Morning" today. After that, he summoned dozens of reporters back to Hawthorne Avenue for a press conference in front of the charred house.

Booker’s act of heroism was the latest in a series of well-publicized feats the 42-year-old two-term mayor has performed — some of them verified, some more legendary.

There was the time he chased down a bank robber, the mysterious tale of "T-bone," the street thug whom Booker counseled to a better life and the well-tweeted story of the mayor personally clearing driveways for Newark residents after the 2010 blizzard.

But according to police officers, firefighters, witnesses and the family he saved, Booker’s brush with death was more than just shoveling snow.

Booker said that as he arrived home from a television interview Thursday night, he noticed a member of his security detail leading two women out of the house next to his South Ward apartment. The officer, Alex Rodriguez, told the mayor there was a fire in the second-floor kitchen.

Booker and two other officers helped the women out, then went inside the burning building where they found a man trying to douse a kitchen fire. The man was rushed downstairs, but Booker said Jacqueline Williams, one of the women who was already out, told him her daughter was still upstairs.

Instantly, Booker tried to run back in. But Rodriguez, charged with protecting the mayor, forbade it. He was quickly overruled.

"It wasn’t easy," Rodriguez said. "I was trying to hold his belt, but he gave me an order."

Fighting through flames and thick smoke, Booker tried to locate the 47-year-old Hodge.

"When I got through the kitchen and was searching for her and looked back an saw the kitchen in flames it was really a frightening experience for me," Booker, his hand still bandaged, told a throng of media outside the house this morning. "I didn’t think we were going to get out of there."

Booker said he fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Just as I was looking down, finding somewhere to breathe, I heard her," he said.

Then the mayor lifted the woman from her bed and carried her to safety.

"Every time I breathed in, I just a felt a blackness," he said. "We were just fighting for our lives."

Fire Director Fateen Ziyad said embers falling from the ceiling burned Hodge’s back and Booker’s hand.

The two-story home was boarded up today but did not appear to have sustained significant exterior damage. Ziyad said the cause of the fire was still under investigation but appeared to be the result of unattended cooking.

After the press conference, Williams arrived at the house.

"She’ll be well," Williams, 65, said of her daughter. "I’m very grateful."

Hodge remained in serious condition tonight at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, though her injuries are not considered life-threatening, Booker and other officials said.

Patrick McCoy, Hodge’s cousin, said his family has always been close with their high-profile neighbor.

"The mayor had a very good relationship with the family for all the years that he’s lived there," McCoy said.

He said his uncle was the man upstairs when the fire broke out and verified the ferocity of the blaze.

"He said the flames were just so high that he couldn’t go in," said McCoy, who owns Gino’s Pizzeria in Irvington. "For the mayor to risk his own life and go in there, that was heartfelt."

The Terror Felt Newark Mayor Cory Booker in The Heroic Rescue of a Fire

There was a time when Cory Booker, "thought we were not going to do."

"No Air", the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said on Friday. "I could not breathe. Then I thought," If I can not find this woman a few minutes, we both die. ""

Less than 12 hours earlier, Booker rushed into the burning house and the neighbors brought the woman to safety, but only after arguing with the detective assigned to protect him.

"It was just one of those moments in life when you just decide to go to," said the 6-foot-3 former tight end at Stanford University.

A woman reported that, in stable condition Friday with second-degree burns on his neck and back. Booker received minor burns and smoke inhalation and was hospitalized briefly on Thursday night.

Already revered in some circles for his good deeds, Booker, 42, is a rising star in the Democratic Party and is considered a potential candidate for governor or U.S. Senate.

Instead of living in posh areas mayorly, he lives in one of the poorest areas of the city to better communicate with people. In 2010, a blizzard that paralyzed the city, Booker grabbed a shovel and began to work.

He is known to ride along with police on the night patrols to hunt down another flight of a suspect. Award Peabody Sundance Channel series "Brick City" documented their efforts to reduce crime in Newark and to address the financial problems. Profiles were published in Time and Esquire.

And when Conan O'Brien began taking potshots at Newark, Booker turned his back to a joke at the end talk shows at night, has been banned from Newark Liberty International Airport and demand a public apology. Operation "feud" ended when Booker O'Brien appeared on the show.

A scientist with a degree from Yale University, Rhodes, Stanford and Oxford, Booker and social media savvy and an interview with Oprah Winfrey and has attracted donations of $ 100 million school Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Booker past actions should not harm his political aspirations (if someone is accused of working on the fire).

The history of salvation, of course, exploded nationally night.

At one point Friday morning, "Cory Booker" was the most searched term on Google. NPR crowned the "heroes of today." The story also took the life of its own Twitter with a sense of humor, with the social media guys who are trying to outdo each other with makeup # corybookerstories (Example: ". When Chuck Norris has nightmares, Cory Booker, the light turns and with him while he sleeps. ")

At a press conference, Booker framed their experience with fire in religious terms. "I feel a sense of gratitude to God that I am here today," said the mayor, in office since 2006. "I have been notorious to come to Jesus moment in my life."

He said one of the detectives riding with him saw the first fire, and called the dispatcher for about 10 hours, then knocked on the window. Detective, Santos Duran, compared the situation to "a scene from the movie" Backdraft. " "

"It was really intense," said Duran.

The passengers did not know, two-story house was on fire. Koli Whitaker, retired truck driver who was sleeping, said a voice shouted that there was a fire - the voice of the mayor - he was awakened.

Whitaker said that the fire in the kitchen upstairs, and that he and the owner of the building tried to turn it off. But the water seemed to be worse, Whitaker said.

Lamar Hodge, who was at the bottom, said she heard her sister Zina, to call for help from above, behind the kitchen. Detective, Alex Rodriguez, the details of the security of City Hall in June, said he went to the second floor, just behind the Booker.

In addition, they heard cries Hodge Zina. By that time, Rodriguez said, fire up the wall and blow it through the ceiling, and they could not hear what he described as a small explosion.

Booker went to the kitchen. Rodriguez said he stopped him and the two "exchanged words."

"I said." I can not let you, it's my job, I have to watch out for danger, "Rodriguez recalled.

Booker tried to load it into the fire again, the detective said, and he has once again chosen mayor, this time to capture the belt. These two words were once again, Rodriguez said, and Booker, this time the situation noted in no uncertain terms.

"He gave me an order, and I respect," said Rodriguez, "was the order." Let go of me. ""

The smoke in the back room was so thick that he "did not see anything," the mayor said. He said that "scary" because he could not find Hodge, aged 47, in the first place.

Once he finds her, he said, raising his shoulders, "and ran as fast as I could through the kitchen, which was on fire, and Rodriguez, who helped me to take home."

The mayor downplayed the fact that he was a hero.

"I have a neighbor who has done what most of the neighbors will be, which leaps into action," he said, adding that with a nod to Rodriguez: "I think most people will have exactly the same, only difference is that I. was to convince someone to let me go, that he did his job to protect me. "

Ann Romney and Hilary Rosen Valve: If the Obama Team Will Always be The First Speaker?

President and Michelle Obama and damage control Hilary Rosen fake comment about Ann Romney and stay at home mom. What happens the next time the Democratic judge misspeaks on camera?

The flap, Ann Romney could have unpredictable consequences for the Obama team.

When a Democratic activist Ann Romney dissed Hilary Rosen on Wednesday, saying she had "never worked a day in his life," the president, first lady, and countless other Democrats broke into the helmet and the condemned woman presumed GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Ms. Rosen apologized for his "poorly chosen" words.

So what happens the next time someone in the vast universe of Democratic strategists and experts cable unfortunate remark about a problem or a critical group of voters? Will President Obama and his surrogates need to intervene? And if they do not, that Obama be accused of tacit connivance comment?

Liberal columnist Jonathan Kepehart a test on Thursday. In the Washington Post blog called "selective indignation, Hilary Rosen v. Allen West," Mr. Kepehart statement raised a Republican congressman from Florida on Tuesday that he believes that there are "about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party who are members of the party Communist Party. "This is called progressive forum of the Congress, said a member of the West.

Of course, absurd demands, as the Kepehart. Maybe so ridiculous, does not deserve a response. But Kepehart scolds GOP leaders do not condemn the alleged McCarthy-la.

In practice, Obama and company can not get all the records with a key ally of the set in front of cameras is growing. They begin to resemble the children in the arcade game Whac-A-Mole.

But it is clear that the comment hit the nerve of the law Rozen, that Mr. Romney is essentially blocked in the Republican presidential nomination, and attention turned to the general election. Obama won big among women, and must maintain this advantage to win in November. In the left-hand comment, suggesting that Ms. Romney can not understand the struggle of women, because it did not work outside the home - Rosen presented a gift to Mr. Romney is right when he needs it.

Romney's campaign has followed a fundraising email titled He said: "If you're mom to stay home, the Democrats have a message for you" war on moms. ": You never worked a day in your life."

According to the latest census, about 1 in 4 women with children under 15 years do not work outside the home. This is a significant voting bloc - and most of them are not rich, like Ann Romney. Ms. Romney said Thursday that it had its own struggles, especially with his health.

In addition, Ms. Romney created an image as an attractive replacement of her husband, complete with stories about how exhausting it was to raise five boys. Polls show that his approval rating is much higher than the negative ease.

So, Obama has created an extraordinary comment Rosen PR on several levels: it was disrespectful to a large voting bloc, and disappeared after the wife of a candidate. The Obama team has pushed the panic button.

"I do not have much patience for comments about the wife of political candidates," he said.

First lady Michelle Obama has intervened in Twitter: "Every mother works a lot, and every woman deserves to be respected," she writes.

Rosen error, probably as big as a representative of Romney, Eric Fehrnstrom Etch-A-Sketch comment - if Rosen did not work for Obama. Nevertheless, she called a "war mom" debate continued to rage on Friday. The next time some expert Democratic mistakes on camera - and it certainly happens, everyone will be watching to see if it deserves a presidential response. And yes nor no, that will tell you about the priorities of Barack Obama.