Fire consumed a home on the Whitmore Landing Road in Hudson on Tuesday night. All five people inside escaped unharmed.

With area fire departments including those from Alton and Glenburn lending a hand, Hudson had an army to combat the fire but they still were outgunned. With only one hose aimed at the home and the hose out of commission occasionally as firefighters replenished water from a pond a mile a way, firefighters proved no match for the flames that at times stretched to treetop height.

Two firefighters who were in the home when it superheated and sections burst into flame, were treated in nearby ambulances but were fine, reported Hudson Fire Chief John Goodie. Goodie didn’t know what injuries the two had suffered, but said they and two others had been inside the home.

The residence was owned by Steve Hussey. Neighbors said Hussey, his wife and three children escaped unharmed as did the family’s two dogs. One friend, who did not want to be identified, said the family was physically doing well but was emotionally devastated.

“That’s their whole life going up [in flames] there,” the woman said.

The fire was reported at 7:56 p.m. and Hudson Fire Chief John Goodie was on the scene about four minutes later. Goodie said when he arrived flames already were reaching through the ceiling.

It’s not clear how the fire started but Goodie said it appeared to be concentrated in the home’s attic at first, and then spread.

One neighbor and friend said she saw the fire in the back of the building and was told by a passing firefighter that the home was “saveable.”

“That’s what they consider saveable,” said the friend, pointing to a home which by 9 p.m. was rapidly being consumed by flames.

Goodie said that early on the home might have been saved, but firefighters had no way to reach the fire in the attic. There were no stairs to the upper part of the home where the fire was, he said. —-

A Bangor man apparently was adamant about Federal Express trucks not driving fast down his street. A company driver reported Tuesday morning that the man had approached him and told him to slow down on the Hammond Street Extension area where he lives or he would start shooting.

The driver reported the incident to the company’s manager who minutes later received a call from the man who reportedly reiterated his threat.

The man admitted to making the threats but told Officer Paul Edwards that he just wanted the drivers to slow down and that he would never actually shoot anyone.

The man’s neighborhood is near where Federal Express is putting in a new facility. The manager apparently asked the drivers to look for alternative routes to reduce traffic through the area and to drive within the speed limit if they weren’t already. —-

A computer and software were stolen from Saliba’s Rug Sales Inc. in Bangor sometime between late Monday afternoon and early Tuesday morning. The computer and software were worth about $1,350. Officer Paul Colley reported that there were no signs of forced entry into the building. All the doors have deadbolts and require keys to get in. —-

Early Tuesday evening, Kenduskeag, Corinth and Glenburn fire departments went to a chimney fire that had spread to a wall in a residence on Route 15 in Kenduskeag, owned by Augustine and Pauline Raymond.

Nobody was injured and the residence, located two houses north of the Kenduskeag Fire Station, was damaged minimally, according to Kenduskeag Fire Chief Steve Hathaway.

The fire began in one side of the residence’s dual chimney when sparking embers flew up from the built-in fireplace and landed inside an interior wall, a wall that had to be torn out, said Hathaway.

The family, which got out of the home safely, returned to the residence after the Fire Department cleared the scene a little after 7 p.m., he added.

Levant’s fire department was called to stand by while the three volunteer crews extinguished any remaining flames, said Hathaway. —-

Penobscot County Deputy Sheriff John Skroski arrested Robert Bennett, 49, of Stetson on Tuesday night on an outstanding warrant issued by Newport District Court.

Bennett — who fled his residence in Maine after the initial arrest in August on a domestic assault charge which violated prior conditions of release — was found in his residence on a routine check Tuesday night by Skroski. Since fleeing, Bennett had been residing in Massachusetts, according to Skroski.

“I had been checking the residence on Route 143 in Stetson, and went back there tonight and he was there … the pickup was there and the light was on,” said Skroski.

Bennett, whom Skroski believed to have a history of assault, is being held at Penobscot County Jail without bail. He is scheduled to appear in Newport District Court on Wednesday morning, the deputy sheriff said.

— Compiled by Doug Kesseli and Jessica Lee