Residents living above a Danforth Ave. bar in Toronto are thanking a neighbour for helping them escape the building just before the roof caved in this morning.

Jay, a 21-year-old resident, was awake when the walls of the three-storey building started to give way shortly after 5 a.m. this morning. He woke up his family then made his way around the building to wake up neighbours.

He had to kick down the door of one family's unit.

"The walls had shifted too much already and the door was stuck - but they had to get out,"Jay said.

Fellow resident Nikita, also 21, left her two cats outside in a pet carrier and ran in to help a couple and their newborn baby. Her pets were killed by falling debris when the roof fell in.

"The baby was just fresh, born Nov. 7," she said.

Nikita credited Jay as being the "real hero" at the scene.

"We're all alive because of Jay," she said. "My dream, my wish, is that I keep my neighbours. I hope wherever we end up living we're all together."

Emergency crews on the scene said there were about 30 residents in the apartments above the Cheers bar at 1774 Danforth Ave. Four were sent to hospital with minor injuries.

"Many people would just have worried about saving themselves," Nikita said. "But Jay made sure we were all up and out. You can't find people like that just anywhere."

Toronto Fire Platoon Chief Paul Moffatt said there were renovations being done to the building adjacent to the one that collapsed. He said an engineer from the building department has been called in to assess the damage.

Danforth is currently closed between Woodbine and Coxwell Aves.