East Liverpool, Liverpool Township, St. Clair Township and Glenmoor Township firefighters responded to a fire at 704 Oakland St. in East Liverpool. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

EAST LIVERPOOL — The state fire marshal has been called in to investigate a suspicious fire in an East End residence on Monday afternoon.

The East Liverpool Fire Department received a call at 4:04 p.m. reporting smoke visible in the upstairs windows of the residence located at 704 Oakland St.

Due to the work being done on the Pope Street Water Tower, several departments are currently listed to provide mutual aid if needed. When the call was dispatched, it was accidentally sent to all the mutual aid departments instead of one, so in addition to Liverpool Township Volunteer Fire Department arriving to provide mutual aid, Calcutta and Glenmoor volunteer departments also responded.

East Liverpool Chief Antony Cumo said the extra mutual aid was a misunderstanding, but he would rather have more than less especially since they didn’t know right away where in the house the fire was located and the house’s close proximity to Sanford Plumbing.

Liverpool Township was the first mutual aid department to arrive on the scene.

By the time Calcutta and Glenmoor arrived, the fire was under control, according to Cumo.

The departments had to park their trucks on Pennsylvania Avenue due to limited space on Oakland, and East Liverpool Police Department provided traffic direction around the trucks.

According to Cumo, the fire started in the basement, and it wasn’t that big of a fire. Cumo said the fire was under control in less than 10 minutes.

The house is a rental property, and the occupant was not home at the time of the fire.

There were two dogs found in the backyard and the homeowner took them. Two chickens were found in a storage tote and taken as well. There were no injuries to animals, occupants or firefighters.

Cumo said that once the fire was under control a couple of things in the basement led them to believe the fire was suspicious and an investigation by the state fire marshal is pending.

Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com