Anne Heche was trapped in a blazing home for 45 minutes after the car crash that left her in a coma.
Anne Heche was trapped in a blazing home for 45 minutes after the car crash that left her in a coma
Records emerged on Friday (02.09.22) show the actress, 53, was stuck amid heavy black smoke so thick it was hard for fire officers to identify her blue Mini Cooper through the darkness.
NBC4 first published timestamped audio files on Thursday (01.09.22) of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s response to the late actress’ August 5 accident in the Mar Vista area.
Deputy Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Richard Fields told the outlet about the crash scene: “Given the heavy fire and smoke conditions, it wasn’t that you could clearly see into the vehicle or clearly be able to access it.”
The recordings also show the LAFD crew arrived at 11.01am the day of the smash and realised within seconds a person was languishing in a smoke-shrouded vehicle.
A dispatcher at the time thought the owner of the home into which Anne ploughed, Lynne Mishele, was the victim, and not the actress.
The firefighters found by 11.18am there were no other victims, and seven minutes later discovered Anne had “pushed up against the floorboard” and was “inaccessible” in her car.
Deputy Chief Fields added to NBC4 on Thursday: “Where the person was in the vehicle was not in the driver’s seat, but on the floorboard of the passenger seat.”
Anne was eventually freed from her crumpled car at 11.49am before being assessed and loaded onto a first aid gurney.
The Los Angeles Police Department obtained a warrant to test the ‘Six Days, Seven Nights’ actress’ blood, and news broke days later she was under the influence of cocaine at the time of the crash.
She suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury” as a result of the crash and as she had wanted to donate her organs, her heart was kept beating after she was legally declared dead on August 12 while recipient assessments were made.
Mum-of-two Anne is to be buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
It comes after her eldest son Homer Laffoon, 20, is reportedly bidding to take charge of his late mother’s estate.
Legal documents say Homer Laffoon lodged the application application after Anne died without a will, according to the New York Post.
The actress – who had Homer with her ex-husband Coleman Laffoon, 48, to whom she was married from 2001 to 2009 – also had son Atlas, 13, with actor James Tupper, 57, who she was with from 2007 to 2018.
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