The Alabama Sate Troopers Office has released the name of a woman badly burned in a car fire in Huxford Wednesday afternoon. Shirley Zechenelly, 59, of Pearl River, La., was found lying in a ditch near the flaming 2002 Toyota car she was apparently traveling in, according to Trooper Cameron Fillingim’s report.

According to a Huxford Volunteer Fire Department firefighter, units responded to Bryant Lane, a dirt road located off McCullough Road, at approximately 4:17 p.m., where Zechenelly was found in a roadside ditch near the burning vehicle.

“It looked like (the car) came to a rest on the embankment of the dirt road,” he said. “We were all kind of trying to figure it out. It didn’t look too beat up, like it had been in a crash. The roof was kind of beat up, but that was about it.”

Damage done to the car’s hood, he said, was the result of firefighter’s efforts to extinguish the blaze.

McCullough Volunteer Fire Department Chief Eddie Kirby also responded to the scene.

“The car caught on fire and she must have gotten stuck in it,” Kirby said. “She was pretty badly burned. The car was completely burned up and they found her in a ditch.”

Units from Little Rock and Poarch fire departments also responded to the scene, as did Poarch Police Department, Alabama state troopers and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department.

Zechenelly was taken from the scene by Atmore Ambulance Service and later taken by LifeFlight to USA Medical Center in Mobile.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

For more details and updates on this developing story, continue checking www.atmoreadvance.com.