The Mineola Fire Department Engine Co. 3 marked 100 years of service to the community Aug. 22. 

A ceremony celebrating the event was slated for Saturday, Sept. 24, at Engine Co. 3’s firehouse at 166 Elm Place. 

Lifelong resident and Chief Andrew Martone Jr. said it’s an honor to belong to the institution that is the Mineola Fire Department. 

“It feels great to be part of the legacy our ancestors started and to be part of celebrating something they started,” Martone said. 

The Engine 3 fire company was formally organized on Aug. 22, 1922, at the original firehouse that still stands and currently acts as the headquarters for the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps. 

The original structure, which opened in 1923, was erected by founding members of the company in their spare time. Prior to the original firehouse, the only firefighting equipment on the east side of the railroad tracks was a hose reel stored in a small building, according to the department. 

Company meetings were either in public buildings, members’ homes or barns throughout Mineola. 

The current Elm Place headquarters was opened on March 19, 1983. 

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Engine Co. 3 also organized the first ladies auxiliary organization in Mineola in 1937 before its success led to an expansion of the program throughout the whole department in 1956. 

The first female firefighter in Mineola Fire Department history joined Engine Co. 3 in September 1988. 

Another celebration is planned when construction on the fire department headquarters is completed by the end of the year. 

Work on the new headquarters on Jericho Turnpike began last summer.

The old headquarters opened in 1913 as the firehouse for the department’s Company No. 2, which had been established six years earlier.

With Company No. 1’s home on Main Street — which was also serving as Village Hall at the time — in bad shape, the village decided in 1925 to expand the Jericho Turnpike building so it could house both companies.

The revamped headquarters was dedicated in 1928 and served the village for more than nine decades before its demolition

The construction has displaced Truck Company No. 2 and its roughly 100 members have had to move their gear, vehicles and equipment to Engine Company No. 3 on Elm Street, Martone Jr. told Blank Slate Media last year.

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