Anne Heche crashed her blue Mini Cooper into a home in Los Angeles on August 5, as heard in a recording obtained and published by TMZ, was unaware that anyone is in the car. The caller told the dispatcher that the car had been driven about 10 feet into the house.
Everyone in the home was accounted for, the caller said, adding that he was unsure how many people were in the car when it crashed.
“Somebody is opening the back to see if we can access because they’re kinda trapped … inside the car,” the caller continued. In the background, a voice yelled “fire!” and another one called out for hoses as the dispatcher tried to determine whether the smoke was in the home or car.
“Solo passenger vehicle struck and came to rest well within a 738 square foot two-story home built in 1952, causing structural compromise and erupting in heavy fire,” the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement.
A 911 call and panic over a trapped victim
The 911 call provides insight into the panic at the scene of the crash.
In the frantic audio, the caller told dispatch that the car moved so fast, it’s in the second room of the home. “Like 10 feet into the house,” the caller said.
Later the caller told dispatch the car was on fire and the smoke was turning “really black,” while others yelled in the background that someone was trapped in the car. Sirens blared in the background.
“Here comes the paramedic,” the caller said. Dispatch urged the caller to stay on the phone until the medics start helping the victim.
It took the nearly 60 firefighters about 65 minutes to extinguish the flames and rescue Heche, authorities said. She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
Lynne Mishele lived in the home with her puppies, Bree and Rueban, and tortoise Marley. They barely made it out alive but lost nearly everything in the fire, neighbor Roy Morgen told CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS. Heche’s car stopped about two feet away from where Mishele was sitting, Morgen said. Continue reading