Lousia , Lawrence County , Kentucky

Early Tuesday morning, Lance Clay got a call that turned him from high school student to hero in just a few short moments. He says, it was a "Life or death situation, and I just couldn't leave her in there. I wouldn't want nobody to leave me in there, so I just manned up and went in there and did what I had to do."

His paraplegic mom called him and told him their house was on fire. He didn't think twice about running in the flames to get her out. "I picked her up and I was carrying her to the front door, and I guess the paint from the ceiling dripped into the floor and it melted the bottom of my feet, all the skin off that and it fell."

The Lawrence County High School football star does not credit his athletic ability for the daring rescue. He tells Eyewitness News, "I asked God to give me the strength to help her and help me out of the house, and he gave me the strength to do it."

Lance has second degree burns on his feet, shoulders, arms, and face, but is recovering with his mom at Cabell Huntington Hospital's burn unit. He says he doesn't think of himself as a hero. "Anybody would have done it. Anybody would have saved their own mother in a burning house."

But friends, family, and strangers, know without his heroic efforts, things could have turned out much differently.

The cause of the fire is believed to be electrical.

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