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Smithtown FD-Fire at old CHOWS hospital

February 10, 2000 Route 111 Fire reported by contractors working on site doing demolition at 1258 hours. FD and PD arrive to find two youths fleeing from the building. Eric Henn and Ian Costanza, both 17 of Hauppauge and Smithtown respectively, were arrested, Henn while fleeing and Costanza while hiding on the ground level of the building. Police alleged that the two subjects broke into the building, set fire to chairs and damaged numerous glass doors and light fixtures and also cut electrical cables. The property is now Country Pointe Woods on Route 111, just North of Route 347

Community Hospital of Western Suffolk (aka CHOWS) opened as Smithtown General Hospital in March of 1961. It was the first hospital in the Township and supposedly had the most modern radiology department in the area. There were 135 beds, all of which contained a color tv and air conditioning. The hospital staff was approximately 160 people, plus the physicians. There were a number of nuisance fires at the facility until it was torn down around 2007.

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