MidHudson News is reporting the Hudson Fire Department was dispatched to Bliss Tower shortly after midnight Fri., Jun. 11, for a fire that started in an apartment on the fifth floor of the nine-story Bliss Towers on North 2nd Street in the city. The occupant of the apartment told Columbia County 911 the flames were going up the wall and across the ceiling. When the first engine arrived it was forced to connect to a hydrant on 2nd Street because the closer hydrant on State Street was out of service, according to Fire Chief Anthony DeMarco Jr. The chief credited the engine's driver for getting water into the building quickly because he knew about the hydrant situation in advance. Firefighters made their way to the fifth floor, encountering stairwell doors that would not unlock from the inside, causing them to be forced open. They found heavy smoke conditions in the hallway and a working fire in apartment 508. A second alarm went out bringing fire companies from Greenport and Catskill to help. The flames were knocked quickly knocked down and a fifth-floor resident was transported to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. The residents of apartments 508, where the fire started, and 408, are now housed in a hotel, due to fire, smoke and water damage to their apartments. Read more at MidHudsonNews [dot] com.