HAVRE — An Ohio woman has died after being unable to escape a fire sparked by a vehicle traveling on a grass-covered road in rural north-central Montana.
Hill County Sheriff Jamie Ross says 58-year-old Pauline H. Siegel of Powell, Ohio, died Tuesday.
The Havre Daily News reports three other people who were in the vehicle were able to escape, but one was injured trying to aid Siegel.
Ross says the vehicle was traveling on a grass-covered road about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of the tiny town of Gildford and ignited a series of grass fires that spread to the vehicle.
Siegel got out of the vehicle but Ross says she was unable to escape the fire that destroyed the vehicle and burned about 1.7 square miles (4.5 square kilometers) of pasture land along with two hay swathers.