Fire Breaks Out in Uptown Building After Resident Falls Asleep with Burning Cigarette

A fire broke out in an uptown apartment building on New Year's Day, according to fire and police reports.

The fire started around 10 a.m. at 1024 Adams St. on Tuesday, after a resident in the building fell asleep with a lit cigarette, police said. When he woke up, he told police, his couch was on fire. One eye witness saw the man running out of the building without his shirt on, yelling at people to leave because of the fire, police said.

The fire department extinguished the fire, but flames were blazing out of the window when the fire trucks arrived. The street — Adams and Eleventh Streets — was temporarily blocked to vehicular traffic, police said.

The Fire Department confirmed that the fire was an accident.

The man whose cigarette started the fire, was taken to the Hoboken University Medical Center with burn wounds to his hand, police said.