Actress Anne Heche has been hospitalized in critical condition following a car accident in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.
Witnesses cited by TMZ late Friday said the Wag the Dog and Donnie Brasco star was seen crashing his Mini Cooper into an apartment building garage, only to flee as bystanders tried to help -the. He then reportedly entered a nearby home in Mar Vista a short time later, starting a fire that engulfed the vehicle and spread throughout the home.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said it took 59 firefighters 65 minutes to extinguish the “stubborn flames” and “rescue an adult female found inside the vehicle.”
Fox 11’s Stu Mandel, who watched the rescue operation in a helicopter over the crash site, said, “If there’s anyone alive in there, it’s going to be a miracle.”
“There was tons of smoke in the house. I think they used the crane to move the car to get the driver out. It was crazy,” a witness was quoted as saying by NBC Los Angeles.
Footage released by Fox 11 shows a woman, identified by the news outlet as Heche, being carried away on a stretcher. The Los Angeles Times, citing law enforcement officials, reports that Heche was the registered owner of the vehicle.
Representatives for Heche did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We really had a multi-faceted incident here,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott. “We had a major traffic collision, we had a woman trapped inside, we had a car that caught on fire and then we had a house that had a major fire red flag. It’s destroyed at this point.”
Heche is now in critical condition, according to firefighters, who did not identify her by name. No other injuries were reported.