As Anne Heche’s family, friends, Hollywood and her fans mourn the actress following the multiple car crashes that occurred on August 5, more details have been revealed about fire department’s response to the incident that led to her death. Per reports, Heche was stuck in her Mini Cooper for 45 minutes from the time firefighters arrived at the scene of the house fire and pulled her out. This happened seven days prior to her death, which reportedly stemmed from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.
It was reported that Anne Heche was involved in multiple collisions, in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, the final one destroying a house and setting off the house fire. According to official records and time-stamped recordings of radio communications, the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived to the scene at 11:01 a.m. on August 5. However, Heche was not found until 24 minutes later, and first-responders were not able to pull her from the wreckage until 11:49 a.m. LAFD Deputy Chief Richard Fields said this to NBC Los Angeles about the report:
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… Heavy smoke conditions, heavy fire conditions, which makes it very difficult for us to just see each other on the inside of a working structure fire.
Apparently, the actress was found collapsed below the front seats of her vehicle. When the fire department located her and confirmed that she was still alive, the firefighters used a heavy duty tow truck to get the car out of the fire. The star was then rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center before being transferred to Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital, where she received specialized care.
Despite the LAFD’s best efforts, Anne Heche was declared brain dead on August 11 but, since she was an organ donor, she remained on life support until recipients were found days later. Fields also said this about the firefighters’ response to Heche’s incident:
I would imagine, just based on some of the very experienced officers that were initiating the firefight, that they made the best effort they could to try to identify that someone was in the vehicle… Our firefighters were doing everything.
Anne Heche died at the age of 53 and was survived by her two sons, 20-year-old Homer Laffoon and 13-year-old Atlas Heche Tupper. Since Heche had no will, Homer recently filed documents to be named the administrator of her estate and to be named the guardian of his younger brother. Heche’s cremated remains were buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on August 23, and the Hollywood community sent their love following Heche’s death. Among those who reached out were her former girlfriend, Ellen DeGeneres, and former colleague Alec Baldwin.
The actress will be forever immortalized through her work in movies such as Six Days Seven Nights, Donnie Brasco and Wag the Dog. Since the star was still a working actress at the time of her death, she will be present in coming projects, such as HBO’s The Idol, which is among upcoming TV premieres.
We here at CinemaBlend continue to express our condolences to Anne Heche’s loved ones during this time.