Updated Aug. 6 at 4 p.m. PT: A representative for Anne Heche released a statement regarding her condition after Friday’s car crash that left her severely burned. “Anne is currently in stable condition. Her family asks for your thoughts and prayers. We ask to respect her privacy during this difficult time. Thank you.”
Previously: Anne Heche crashed her Mini Cooper into an apartment complex garage Friday, sped away when residents tried to help and then crashed into a nearby home, setting off a destructive fire that required a dramatic rescue and landed the “Six Days, Seven Nights” actress in the hospital with severe burns, TMZ reported.
Police confirmed details of the incident to TheWrap, but not the actress’ identity because no one had been arrested.
TMZ says Heche’s car was caught on video speeding wildly through a residential after the apartment incident, where residents tried to help her get out of the pinned vehicle — but she backed up and sped away. Moments later, she crashed so violently into a home that her car nearly went clear through the structure in the West Side neighborhood of Mar Vista.
Aerial footage showed dozens of firefighters swarming the house with the vehicle – with Heche still pinned inside – scrambling simultaneously to put out the flames and extricate the car.
After several excruciating minutes, firefighters managed to pull the Mini Cooper out with cables and get Heche onto a gurney. Right before the stretcher was loaded in the ambulance, she was seen emerging on her own from the white cloth covering and restraints, and appeared to try to get up on her hands and knees (see screenshot below).
TMZ did not report on the extent of Heche’s injuries, but said she was hospitalized “but expected to live.” Photos posted on TMZ show Heche apparently in the moments immediately after the garage mishap, with what appears to be a bottle of alcohol in the cup-holder.
“The vehicle was heading east on Preston Way at a high rate of speed, entered the T intersection at Preston Way and Walgrove Ave, ran off the road and collided with the residence in the 1700 block of Walgrove,” Los Angeles Police Department public information officer Tony Im told TheWrap. “The vehicle became engulfed in flames and the driver was transported to a local hospital by LAFD.”
“We really had a multifaceted incident here,” LAFD Capt. Erik Scott told KTLA. “We had a significant traffic collision, we had entrapment of a woman inside that, we had car that erupted into fire, and then we had a home that had significant fire that is red tagged. It’s at this point destroyed.”
A rep for Heche did not immediately return messages left Friday. Heche has a history of personal troubles and mental health challenges.
In 2000, she drove from Los Angeles to a small town outside of Fresno, parked on the roadside and knocked on the door of a random home. The woman who answered the door recognized Heche and let her in, giving her water, a pair of slippers and letting her take a shower. When Heche settled in to her living room and asked to watch a movie, the woman called police.
According to a police report, Heche told deputies she was “God, and was going to take everyone back to heaven in a spaceship.” She was taken to a psychiatric unit in Fresno and released.
Heche, who famously dated Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000, recounted abuse and other childhood trauma in several interviews. She released a memoir in 2003 titled “Call Me Crazy.”
The height of Heche’s acting career came in the 1990s, including starring opposite Johnny Depp in “Donny Brasco,” and the 1998 romantic adventure “Six Days, Seven Nights.” She won three Daytime Emmys for her early work on the soap opera “Another World.”
Sharon Knolle contributed to this report.