NEWARK, N.J. — Hospital officials say the woman rescued from a burning home by the Newark’s mayor has been admitted to intensive care in serious condition.

Fire officials say 47-year-old Zina Hodge suffered second-degree burns to her back and neck and smoke inhalation.

Mayor Cory Booker ran through a burning kitchen to rescue Hodge from her second-floor bedroom late Thursday. He suffered a burned hand and smoke inhalation.

Booker, 42, said today he thought he might die when he dashed through a burning, smoky kitchen to look for Hodge, whose mother had screamed she was still trapped inside the burning house.

“I felt fear. I really didn’t think we were going to get out of there,” said Booker, his burned right hand still bandaged, told a news conference in front of the boarded-up home.

As he got to the bedroom, Booker said he could hear, “I’m here, I’m here. Help! I’m here.”

The mayor, who was coughing heavily after the rescue, downplayed his actions today, saying he just did what any neighbor would do, “which is jump into action to help a friend.”

“I didn’t feel bravery, I felt terror,” he said. “It was a moment I felt very religious, let me put it that way.”

“I think he’s a super mayor — and should become president,” said her mother, Jacqualine Williams.

Fire officials said she and the mayor were apparently burned as embers fell from the ceiling, with the woman slung over the mayor’s shoulder. The officials said the fire likely started in the kitchen.

Two members of the mayor’s security detail had already taken several members of the family from the home when the mayor arrived and heard the mother screaming that her daughter was still inside.

His security detail tried to drag him away, but Booker told them that the woman was going to die, Detective Alex Rodriguez said.

“Without thinking twice, he ran into the flames and rescued this young lady,” Rodriguez said in an interview with “CBS This Morning.”

Booker, an up-and-coming Democratic politician who has been mentioned as a possible future candidate for statewide office, said Rodriguez also helped him take Hodge down the stairwell. Once they were outside, “we both just collapsed,” he said.

“I had my proverbial come-to-Jesus moment in my life,” he said.

The mayor said he didn’t feel heroic and said the incident gave him a greater appreciation for the work performed daily by firefighters. “It all happened very, very quickly,” he said

But the fire director of this impoverished city of about 270,000 disagreed.

“He’s one of the most heroic men I’ve ever met,” said Fateen Ziyard, whose firefighters arrived minutes after getting a call from the mayor’s security detail. “He’s showing his true grit. This is the type of mayor we have — he doesn’t just talk it, he walks it.”

The mayor planned to go take a nap after the news conference.

Booker, who is 6-foot-3, was a tight end for the varsity football team at Stanford University, where he got his undergraduate and master’s degrees. He got a law degree from Yale University and as a Rhodes scholar also got a degree from Oxford.

Despite his past as an athlete, he said is now “somewhat out of shape.” He said he “was chiseled” but now just jiggled.

Booker is known for his hands-on assistance to his constituents, even shoveling snow during a blizzard that snarled his city and the rest of the Northeast in 2010.

A prolific social media user, he tweeted late Thursday that he was fine and thanked his followers for their well-wishes.

“Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation,” Booker tweeted. “We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok.”

He then posted a tweet early today that read: “Thanks everyone, my injuries were relatively minor. Thanks to Det. Alex Rodriguez who helped get all of the people out of the house.”