A heroic tenant is being credited with saving the lives of several neighbours when the three-storey apartment complex they called home suddenly collapsed in the early morning hours Friday.
Twenty-one-year-old Jay Slievert immediately began alerting others in the building when the structure began to crumble.
"I knew it was coming down and that it was just a matter of when, and if everyone was going to get out safe or not," Slievert said. "I woke up all the neighbours and everyone left."
Incredibly, they all managed to scramble out safely following the sudden implosion just after 5am at
1774 Danforth Ave. First the walls gave way and then the roof came plummeting down, sending stunned residents out into the streets.
Carol Morin almost never made it out after her door jammed. Slievert wasted no time in helping her. "We live above him and we heard a popping," Morin recalled. "I saw the wall cracking and we couldn't open our door. (Slievert) had to kick our door in."
Slievert wasn't the only hero - Nikita Febbo helped rescue a family with a newborn baby. "I was worried about the baby," Febbo said through tears. "I came outside and the building collapsed. I thought they were still inside, stuck on the staircase. But they survived thank God."
"When you see the building falling down behind you and you have a baby in your arms, you just run."
"All our stuff is inside," she adds. "Everything...our whole lives. Pictures, special things that are irreplaceable."
Four people received minor injuries in the collapse and were taken to hospital to be checked out. There's no word yet on what caused it but the lower level of the building, which houses the Cheers Bar and Grill, had apparently been undergoing renovations.
"The call came in at approximately 5:15am. The people in the adjacent apartment heard some cracking," noted Toronto Fire Platoon Chief Paul Moffatt. "They (tried to) open up an interior door and noticed that they were unable to open the door. They decided to vacate the building and they went downstairs, down to Danforth Avenue, and at that time they looked up and saw debris starting to fall down on to the street."
The Red Cross sent representatives to the area to help out, given that many of those living in the affected building lost all their worldly possessions in the wreckage.
The displaced have been sent to a nearby church until arrangements can be made to find a new place for them to stay. "Anyone who has any relatives that lived between 1779 and 1821 can call a 24-hour hotline number, and that's for The Red Cross," Moffatt outlines. "And that's
(416) 676-8559. And then that way they can find out where their loved ones are."
Residents in an adjacent building were also told to leave their homes for safety reasons until it could be determined whether the structure is sound.
Investigators including a city engineer are probing what precipitated the cave-in. Danforth was closed off between Woodbine and Glebemount, as the rest of the building was being demolished.
The Salvation Army is also helping affected residents. "We provided those displaced by the collapse with a warm meal, coffee, clothes and practical items as needed." said Major Ray Braddock in a statement.
The organization is coordinating its efforts with the Red Cross and city officials.