The smoke in the backroom was so thick

There was a moment when Cory Booker "thought burberry handbags we were not going to make it." "No air," the Newark, N.J., mayor said Friday. "I just could not breathe. That's when I thought, 'If I don't find this woman in a few minutes, we're both going to die.' " Less than 12 hours earlier, Booker had dashed into a neighbor's burning home and carried a woman to safety, but only after arguing with a police detective assigned to protect him. "It was just one of these moments in life when you just decide to jump in," said the 6-foot-3 former Stanford University tight end. The woman was reported to be in stable condition Friday, with second-degree burns on her neck and back. Booker suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation and was hospitalized briefly late Thursday. Already lionized in some corners for his good deeds, Booker, 42, is a rising star in the Democratic Party and considered a potential candidate gucci sunglasses for governor or the U.S. Senate. Instead of living in posh, mayorly quarters, he resides in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city to better stay connected with the people. During a 2010 blizzard that paralyzed the city, Booker grabbed a shovel and got to work. He has been known to ride along with police on late-night patrols, once even chasing down a robbery suspect. The Peabody award-winning Sundance Channel series "Brick City" documented his efforts to decrease Newark's crime rate and tackle financial problems. Profiles have appeared in Time magazine and Esquire. And when Conan O'Brien began taking potshots at Newark, Booker turned the joke back on the late-night talk-show host, banning him from using Newark Liberty International Airport and demanding a public apology. The running "feud" ended when Booker appeared on O'Brien's show. A Rhodes scholar with degrees from Yale, Stanford and Oxford, the social-media-savvy Booker also has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and attracted a $100 million donation for schools from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Booker's latest actions shouldn't hurt his political oakley sunglasses aspirations (unless someone accuses him of taking a job away from a firefighter). The rescue story, of course, exploded nationally overnight. At one point Friday morning, "Cory Booker" was the most searched term on Google. NPR crowned him "today's hero." The story also took on a humorous life of its own on Twitter, with social-media types trying to outdo themselves with made-up #corybookerstories. (Example: "When Chuck Norris has nightmares, Cory Booker turns on the light & sits with him until he falls back asleep.") At a news conference, Booker framed his experience with the fire in religious terms. "I feel a sense of gratitude today to God that I'm here," said the mayor, in office since 2006. "I had my proverbial come-to-Jesus moment in my life." He said one of the detectives riding with him saw the flames first and called a dispatcher about 10 p.m. and then knocked on a Classic burberry bracelet cheap discount 2012 brown beige window. The detective, Santos Duran, compared the situation to "a scene from the movie 'Backdraft.' " "It was really intense," Duran said. Some occupants did not realize the two-story house was on fire. Coley Whitaker, a retired truck driver who was asleep, said a voice shouting that there was a fire — the mayor's voice — awakened him. Whitaker said the blaze was in the kitchen upstairs and that he and the building's owner tried to extinguish it. But water seemed to make it worse, Whitaker said. Lamar Hodge, who was downstairs, said he heard his sister, Zina, screaming for help from upstairs, beyond the kitchen. Detective Alex Rodriguez, on the mayor's security detail since June, said he went to the second floor with Booker right behind. They also heard Zina Hodge's screams. By then, 2012 chanel fashion sunglasses discount for sale CREWR248 Rodriguez said, flames had scaled the wall and were fanning across the ceiling, and they could hear what he described as small explosions. Booker moved toward the kitchen. Rodriguez said he held him back and that the two "exchanged words." "I said: 'I can't let you in, that's my job. I have to keep you from danger,' " Rodriguez recalled. Booker tried to charge into the flames a second time, the detective said, and he again restrained the mayor, this time by grabbing his belt. The two again had words, Rodriguez said, and Booker this time laid out the situation in no uncertain terms. "He gave me an order, and I complied," Rodriguez said. "The order was, 'Let me go.' " The smoke in the backroom was so thick that he "couldn't see anything," the mayor said. He said he was "frightened" because he could not find Hodge, 47, at first. Once he located her, he said, he lifted her over one shoulder "and ran as quickly as I could through the kitchen, which was on fire, and to Rodriguez, who assisted me in taking her out of the house." The mayor played down the idea that he had been a hero. "I'm a neighbor who did what most neighbors burberry ties would do, which is jump into action," he said, adding, with a nod to Rodriguez: "I think most people would have done the exact same thing. The only difference is I had to convince somebody to let me go who was doing his job to protect me."