The Mineola Fire Department responded to a fire at an apartment building at 101 Clinton Avenue on Saturday, March 15 at approximately 2:54 p.m.

The fire came from an apartment on the third floor of the five-floor building. The apartment, located in one of three wings on the floor, received heavy smoke damage. In addition, a bedroom was gutted. There was also heavy smoke in the hallway.

Mineola Fire Chief Mike DeStefano said the fire was going strong and that the wing of the third floor where the fire was located had to be evacuated. The chief said that it was beneficial that the fire occurred during a day when it was nice weather so some people were out of their apartments.

The fire was contained to the one apartment. Chief DeStefano believes it was caused by an electrical problem as a BX cable between the second and third floor blew out.

The Mineola Fire Department received mutual aid from the Williston Park and Garden City Park Fire Departments, which were at the scene. The Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps also responded. The Garden City and East Williston Fire Departments responded to Mineola headquarters.

There were no injuries reported.

On election day in Mineola, on Tuesday, March 18, a call was placed to 911 of the Nassau County Police Department Communications Bureau that four bombs had been placed at Best Buy on Old Country Road in Westbury and one had been placed near the emergency room at Winthrop-University Hospital. For Best Buy, it was the fourth bomb scare in the past three weeks.

The call came in about 10:35 a.m. saying the bomb would go off in five hours. According to Winthrop vice president of external affairs John Broder, the Nassau County Police Department came to the hospital to do a comprehensive visual search of the perimeter of the hospital on the exterior of the hospital, all of the areas that are contiguous to the emergency department as well as all of the areas within the emergency department including the roof and basement. Police utilized bomb sniffing dogs to detect the presence of a possible threat and none was found.

Down at the Mineola Fire Department, chief Mike DeStefano summoned all of the department's firefighters to standby at the firehouse in case of an emergency from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

As it turned out, the bomb scare was just a scare. Broder said the emergency department was not evacuated. People were shifted around in some cases to clear a space in order to search. However, service was not disrupted. Ambulances though were asked not to come in for a period of time. Broder said patients were moved from area that were checked and then moved back once they were cleared.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact Nassau County Police Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS.