On August 5th, Anne Heche, 53, crashed her car into a Mar Vista, Los Angeles home.
The house went up in flames, causing Heche to suffer severe burns. She is currently intubated at a nearby hospital, and according to PEOPLE, she is in stable condition.
Witness Lynne Bernstein — who lives in neighboring Venice — described how he and other neighbors spoke to Heche after the incident.
Per PEOPLE, Bernstein reported that the car drove “almost all the way through” the home and “almost immediately” went up in flames. A neighbor named Dave climbed into the back of the vehicle to try to speak to her.
Bernstein says, “She responded that she wasn’t doing real well. Yeah, he asked her to raise her hand or something … if she was okay, and she said she couldn’t.”
Bernstein and the group of neighbors tried to free her from the fiery vehicle to no avail.
The LAFD arrived on the scene at 10:56 a.m. After 65 minutes and the effort of 59 firefighters, the flames were extinguished, and Heche was extracted from the vehicle.
Bernstein describes the smoke as “intense,” explaining that they were “having a hard time seeing and breathing.”
According to Bernstein, the resident of the home was shocked. “I don’t think she got what was going on. She said, ‘What happened? What happened?’” he says.
He notes that the resident and Heche are both fortunate to be alive.
Other witnesses told TMZ that Heche initially crashed into a garage of an apartment complex. She was then seen speeding off from the first crash down a residential street and into the home.
It was also reported that she ran a stop sign at the Walgrove intersection and through several bushes before colliding with the home.
Her family, friends, and fans took to social media to ask for prayers.
Actor James Tupper, who dated Heche for more than 10 years, wrote on Instagram, “Thoughts and prayers for this lovely woman, actress and mother tonight.”
Tupper is the father of he and Heche’s 13-year-old son Atlas. She also has a 20-year-old son, Homer, from her marriage with Coley Laffoon.
Heche has been working on a number of projects in recent months. She is starring in Lifetime’s Girl in Room 13, set to premiere this fall, as well as an upcoming horror-thriller Full Ride. She also has a recurring role in OWN’s All Rise and is set to premiere in Sam Levinson’s show Idol on HBO.
She is also working on her second book.
