NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 A mother is remembering her son as brave and kind. The teenager with so much life left to live died in a Suncoast Estates house fire.<\/p>\n
“We shared a lot in common,” said Falon Holland, the mother of 17-year-old Nikola (Nik) Knight. “Had a lot of good times too.”<\/p>\n
Watch Fox 4’s Allie Kaiser speak with the mother and a neighbor of Nikola Knight: <\/p>\n
A mother and community mourn after a teenager dies from a North Fort Myers house fire<\/p>\n
Good times are now memories Holland will hold onto.<\/p>\n
Her son died in a house fire that sparked on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
She says she left for work before the fire started, but later found out what Nik did as the house burned.<\/p>\n
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Fox 4<\/p>\n
Nik’s mother started to clean up what she could of the home on Thursday afternoon. <\/p>\n
“They found him banging on my window, trying to get me out,” Holland said. “He got out and went back to try to save me and didn’t know I wasn’t even there.”<\/p>\n
A brave action that woke up his neighbor, Rebekah Chamberlain.<\/p>\n
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Tiffany Snyder <\/p>\n
Nikola Knight sits with one of his friends.<\/p>\n
Chamberlain said, “Had we not woken up, our home and our family would have been next.”<\/p>\n
Nik’s mom says he was airlifted to a hospital in Bradenton for his severe burns.<\/p>\n
“He wasn’t going to make it anyway, but we tried to keep him long enough for everybody to say their goodbyes,” she said.<\/p>\n
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Fox 4<\/p>\n
Nik’s mother, Falon Hollad, places one of his running shirts at the memorial started by community members. <\/p>\n
Holland is now trying to figure out how to move forward, but in times of tragedy, the community is stepping up to support one another.<\/p>\n
“The Suncoast community – when something tragic happens, we come together tighter than a knit blanket,” said Chamberlain.<\/p>\n