Man who rescued stranger from fire says he was thinking of his daughter

A woman escaped from an apartment fire with minor burns thanks to the quick response of a man who just happened to be passing by.

Leo Meawasige was visiting a friend at a nearby shelter at around 9 a.m. on Monday when he saw smoke coming from the sixth floor of 310 Dundas St. E.

Firefighters had been alerted but had not yet arrived at the Toronto Community Housing apartment building.

"Before reaction hit thought and thought hit anything else, I was already across the street, banging on the door, trying to get them to open the lobby door so I could run up to the sixth floor and try to get people off that floor for sure," Meawasige told CBC Toronto.

He said he bolted up the stairs in "under a minute" and began banging on doors to warn people to get out.

The fire had started in a bachelor unit and its only occupant, a woman in her 50s, was still inside when he arrived.

"I didn't know I was getting close until I hit the door and it was hot," he said. "I got the door open and I got the lady out. Lot of smoke, lot of fire."

He attempted to contain the fire before realizing "there's too much smoke to be there for my own safety or for her safety, so I dragged her to the stairwell," bumping into firefighters on his way down.

Meawasige said the woman seemed "disoriented" and didn't seem to understand him when he asked her if anyone else lived in the unit.

Later, looking back on the incident, he said it was thoughts of his four-year-old daughter that motivated him to run into the building.

"I thought about my little girl, the idea that my little girl could be in something like that, maybe somebody would do what I just did. I couldn't bear anybody losing their life in such a tragic way," he said.

The fire was put out by 9:30 a.m.

Toronto fire officials said the cause of the fire has not been determined.