Emergency officials were not immediately called after a sinkhole opened up beneath a building at a Lake County resort Sunday, causing the building to slowly sink and prompting the evacuation of the hotel.

Paul Caldwell, the president of the Summer Bay Resort, said 911 was called nearly an hour after the first warning signs and evacuations started.

The resort is on U.S. Highway 192 in the Four Corners area of Clermont, just east of U.S. Highway 27, 10 miles west of Disney World and 17 miles southeast of the Citrus Tower in Clermont. Summer Bay Resort is a RCI Gold Crown resort that was developed and owned by Joe H. Scott, Sr.

Meanwhile, a security guard is being hailed as a hero for rescuing guests.

Richard Shanley said guests flagged him down five minutes into his shift as he was driving by building 104 just after 11 p.m.

The former volunteer firefighter said his training kicked in as he went into the building.

He started pounding on doors, telling people to get out. Shanley said he evacuated the building floor by floor, running through the center elevator building, which completely collapsed.

Shanley said children were crying, while other guests were sleeping and completely unaware of what was happening.

He and a co-worker did their best to keep people calm and work quickly.

"It was just a lot of popping noise," Shanley said. "The ceiling was coming down. I had to run literally from end to end to get people out. As you are running by, pieces of the ceiling are falling down behind you. So you just do what you can to take care of the situation at hand."

The sinkhole, which is in the middle of the villa, is about 40 to 50 feet in diameter, Lake County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Cuellar said. He said authorities think it was getting deeper but couldn't tell early Monday if it was growing outward.

Luis Perez, who was staying at a villa near the sinking one, said he was in his room when the lights went off around 11:30 p.m. Sunday. He said he was on his way to the front desk to report the outage when he saw firefighters and police outside.

"I started walking toward where they were at and you could see the building leaning and you could see a big crack at the base of the building," said Perez, 54, of Berona, N.J.

He called the other vacationers in his group and had them come outside. Eventually, he said, authorities evacuated his villa and a third one as well.

Another guest at the resort, Maggie Ghamry, said the area where she was staying is gone. 

"Those two buildings have concaved into one another the archway is gone," Ghamry said. "Our floor is 50 feet underground. The whole side of the building we stayed in is gone, in chunks and pieces."

The Red Cross is at the scene working with the Summer Bay Resort to help the displaced guests.

Great Orlando Vacation Homes is offering to help guests by donating a few nights those who are displaced and may need accommodations. Those affected are asked to call (407) 398-9840.

Buildings 104, 105 and 106 have been evacuated. Other guests at the resort said they do not have hot water as a result of the sinkhole.

Some were also checking in just as firefighters were arriving.

They said management would not tell them what was going on, and now they'd like to get as far away from the sinkhole as possible.