A man is being hailed a hero after he helped his family escape their burning home in Glace Bay, N.S.

Six people from an extended family were home at the time of the fire.

Martine Robichaud says she was asleep when she awoke suddenly Tuesday morning.

“I smelled the smoke and woke my husband. He got me and the baby outside, my nine month old,” says Robichaud.

“His room is right there so he went and grabbed Kevin, brought him outside, then went back in for his other uncle.”

Her Uncle Shaun is blind while her Uncle Kevin uses a wheelchair.

Robichaud’s husband, John Gallie, helped them escape the home while two others – a man and a woman - climbed out a second-storey window and jumped from the porch roof.

Gallie and Kevin remain in hospital while the others were treated for smoke inhalation or slight burns.

Gallie’s sister Melanie had just moved out of the house with her two young children a few days before the fire.

“My brother’s a hero. He saved everyone in the house,” she says. “My brother’s still really bad right now and so is my pops. They’re heavily sedated with, you know, tubes in his throat.”

Fire officials say, with another few minutes, all six people could have been killed in the blaze.

“After five-and-a-half hours we have extinguishment, but we were met by roof collapses and a lot of hazardous situations for my firefighters,” says Glace Bay Deputy Fire Chief John Chant.

The family says they lost everything in the fire and are now trying to pick up the pieces.

“Clothing for a four-year-old boy and six-year-old girl, just basic necessities,” says Melanie Gallie.

“I have a nine-month-old daughter. She lost everything in the fire too, everyone did,” says Robichaud.

The family is looking into setting up a trust fund where people can donate.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation but fire officials believe it was accidental.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald