Actress Anne Heche was stuck in her car for over an hour before being rescued at the scene of the catastrophic collision that caused her death last month, according to new audio files from the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The videos, which NBC Los Angeles was able to secure, show that it took firefighters 25 minutes to free Heche from her automobile, which was stuck in the rear wall of a private property, after they arrived on the scene and 24 minutes to find her dead.
Heche was hospitalised on August 5 with serious burns after hitting a house in L.A.’s Mar Vista area with her automobile, setting it on fire. In only 65 minutes, 59 firefighters who arrived on the site quickly confined and put out the fire.
The actor was seen on camera just before the incident colliding into an apartment building’s carport. She had bought a wig at a hair salon in Venice and was also caught speeding on another street in the West Los Angeles neighbourhood.
The audio recordings show that when LAFD initially arrived at the site on August 5 at 11:01 a.m. , five minutes after Heche’s collision, a dispatcher can be overheard stating, “There is a person locked inside the vehicle.”
Another firefighter reported that there were “no patients at this moment” at 11:18 a.m.
Several minutes later, a different member of the LAFD inquired about the health of the car’s driver, saying, “Let me clear this up, so you do have a patient in the car?”
According to LAFD Deputy Chief Richard Fields, visibility concerns initially caused misunderstanding over who was hurt.
Fields told NBC Los Angeles, “Given the intense fire and smoke circumstances, it wasn’t like you could easily see into the truck or obviously be able to approach it.” On the inside of a working structure fire, it is really challenging for us to just see each other due to the thick smoke and fire circumstances.
One firefighter clarified the issue at 11:25 a.m. by stating that he had “identified one patient, unreachable at this moment.”
The 53-year-old actor was “pushed up against the floorboard” of the passenger seat, not the driver’s seat, according to Fields, which made it harder for the firefighters to see her inside the car. At 11:49 a.m., Heche’s automobile was removed from the house, and she was rescued from it.
Over the radio, a firefighter said, “We have one patient in the vehicle, being examined, going to be put up on the gurney for transfer.”
Heche was sent straight to the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital after being first taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
The “Six Days Seven Nights” actress was declared brain dead a few days earlier and taken off life support on August 14.
Later it was found by the L.A. County coroner’s office that Heche had died from “inhalation of smoke and heat burns.” Additionally, she had “sternal fracture owing to blunt trauma,” which is a condition frequently brought on when the chest collides with the steering wheel during an accident.
Homer Laffoon, her oldest son, informed The Times on August 12 that she had passed away.
Atlas, my brother, and I lost our mother. I am left with a profound, wordless melancholy after six days of nearly unimaginable emotional ups and downs, he wrote. I’m hoping my mom is no longer in agony and starting to experience what I like to think of as her everlasting freedom.
Thousands of my friends, family, and fans reached out to me over the course of those six days. I’m appreciative of their support as well as that of my stepmother Alexi and father Coley, who continue to be my pillars of strength at this trying time. I love you, Mom, rest in peace.