Anne Heche was trapped in car for 45 minutes before being rescued from burning home, LAFD recordings reveal
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Anne Heche was trapped in the fiery wreckage of her car for almost 45 minutes after she crashed it into a Los Angeles residence on Aug. 5., recently released audio recordings from the Los Angeles Fire Department reveal.
The recordings, obtained and time-stamped by NBC4's I-Team, disclosed that it took 20 minutes for firefighters to discover Heche in her car and another 20 minutes to extract her vehicle from the burning Mar Vista home so that she could receive medical treatment.
"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," LAFD Deputy Chief Richard Fields told NBC4. He also noted that Heche was not discovered behind the wheel, adding, "I will say that where the person was in the vehicle was not in the driver's seat, but on the floorboard of the passenger seat."
LAFD first arrived at the home at 11:01 a.m. local time, with one firefighter discovering "a person stuck inside the vehicle," per the outlet. Fields later explained to NBC4 that "the patient that was identified initially was the person that was in the home" and not Heche.
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage Anne Heche
At 11:18 a.m., a firefighter working to control the blaze confirmed that no one else was inside the building aside from the homeowner. They added, "We do have no patients at this time."
An incident commander checked in about the driver at 11:22 a.m. and radioed in, asking, "Let me clear this up: So you do have a patient in the car?"
The actress was discovered just three minutes later at 11:25 a.m. "We have identified one patient," a first responder said. "Inaccessible at this time… pushed up against the floorboard."
Heche was pulled from the wreckage using heavy towing equipment around 11:49 a.m before being loaded into an ambulance for treatment. A firefighter reported, "We have one patient in the auto, being assessed, about to be loaded up on the gurney for transport."
Narcotics were found in the Six Days Seven Nights actress's system following the accident. She was in a coma from Aug. 5 until her death on Aug. 12. A coroner's report revealed that Heche died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.
The LAFD did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
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