NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. — 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.
"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."
Watch Fox 4's Allie Kaiser speak with the mother and a neighbor of Nikola Knight:
Good times are now memories Holland will hold onto.
Her son died in a house fire that sparked on Tuesday morning.
She says she left for work before the fire started, but later found out what Nik did as the house burned.
"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."
A brave action that woke up his neighbor, Rebekah Chamberlain.
Chamberlain said, "Had we not woken up, our home and our family would have been next."
Nik's mom says he was airlifted to a hospital in Bradenton for his severe burns.
"He wasn't going to make it anyway, but we tried to keep him long enough for everybody to say their goodbyes," she said.
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.
"The Suncoast community - when something tragic happens, we come together tighter than a knit blanket," said Chamberlain.
Chamberlain and others are asking for donations to cover Nik's funeral expenses.
They say whatever is left over will be given to his school, Island Coast High School, possibly to support some of the programs he loved, such as art.
"We just want him to be known," said Chamberlain. "He was an outstanding man to this community."
A celebration of life for Nik will be held at Bridge Community Church on November 19th at 7:00 PM.
A spokesperson with the North Fort Myers Fire Department told Fox 4 that Florida's State Fire Marshal investigated the fire and ruled the cause as undetermined.
As questions remain, his mom will remember the kind young man and the good times they had.
"I know he had a lot of friends in the area, and I know they all loved him," Holland said.
