One dead in house fire
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EAST LIVERPOOL -- A house fire at 2030 Ohio Ave. has left one resident dead.
The East Liverpool and Liverpool Township Volunteer fire departments responded to the fire early Tuesday morning around 2 a.m.
At approximately 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning East Liverpool Fire Chief Antony Cumo said that the fire had a possible fatality as the resident at that time was unaccounted for and were searching to see if the victim was in the house.
Cumo said that when the fire crews arrived the house was fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters tried conducting a search in the house but were pushed back by flames and heat and found the steps burned out and the fire fighters were left with no choice, but to battle the blaze from outside the structure.
State fire marshals were pulled from the scene of a fire in the night on Forsyth Place to investigate the Ohio Avenue fire. Cumo said there were four fire marshals on the scene, and they were bringing in an excavator to start searching through the rubble.
The house had partially collapsed into the basement and was unstable, so a demolition crew knocked down what remained of it.
Cumo confirmed later Tuesday afternoon that the resident whose identity has not yet been released was in the house at the time of the fire and was found deceased in the rubble and sent to the coroner.
Cumo said the fire marshal would be handling the investigation into the cause of the fire.
According to news affiliate WKBN, East Liverpool Police Chief John Lane noted that the fire marshal will be investigating how the fire started and that the victim was sent to the coroner's office to see if that was any foul play.
kgarabrandt@mojonews.com