while (<$fh_in>)
{
   chomp;  #deletes the trailing "new line" line ending
           #this works for files from any OS
   my @array = split(';',$_);
}

##</code><code>##

while (<$fh_in>)
{
   print;   #prints $_ (the line from $fh_in)
   my ($first_thing) = split(';',$_);
   print "$first_thing\n";
}