Grand Forks woman seriously hurt in fire

GRAND FORKS, MINNESOTA - Fire officials say a damaged electrical cord caused a house fire that seriously injured a woman who was pulled to the sidewalk unconscious and covered in soot.

Olive Mountain, 60, was listed in serious condition after she was transferred to the Hennepin County, Minn., hospital with burns from the fire. Neighbors said she lives upstairs in a house that had been converted to apartments.

A statement from the Fire Department said investigators determined that a damaged electrical cord from a television set ignited a box of clothes. Fire officials said the smoke detector in the upstairs apartment did not work because it had no battery.

Neighbor Paul Bays spotted the fire shortly before 8 p.m., when he was taking his dog out.

Fire officials said the blaze caused about $31,000 in property damage to the building and its contents, and that it appeared to have started in the second-floor apartment, along a living room wall.

Mountain was the only one home at the time of the fire, officials said.