Anne Heche remains in hospital and in intensive care following a fiery car crash on Friday afternoon.
The actress crashed into a house in Los Angeles, and her car caught fire as a result.
“Anne is in the ICU, she’s lucky to be alive. She has severe burns and has a long recovery ahead. Her team and her family are still trying to process what led up to the crash,” a source close to Heche told CNN.
According to People, Heche has suffered severe burns from the incident and is intubated.
The actress is described as being in a stable condition.
A neighbor opened up to People, saying that the vehicle drove “almost all the way through” the house and “almost immediately” caught fire.
Lynne Bernstein, a neighbor who lived nearby, said someone managed to get into the back of the car and speak to Heche.
“She responded that she wasn’t doing real well,” the neighbor explained to People.
“He actually talked to her briefly,” he notes.
“Yeah, he asked her to raise her hand or something … if she was okay and she said she couldn’t.”
Due to the nature of the fire, the neighbors could not get her out of the car before the Los Angeles fire department arrived.
According to reports, it took 59 firefighters 65 minutes to put out the fire and extract the driver.
“We were having a hard time seeing and breathing,” Bernstein shared, saying that neighbors attempted to hose down the fire as another tried to get the actress out of the car.
“He [was] overcome by the smoke. So, he went to the back of the house to see if there was an alternative route, maybe we could get to her from the front of the vehicle,” Bernstein adds.
“But the smoke, even on the backyard was pretty darn intense.”
Bernstein said that Heche is fortunate to have survived the incident.
“We were just looking inside, going ‘How could you survive that?’ Because we had a hard time breathing even outside of the house,” he says.
“So, somebody was watching out over her, I guess. I mean, as seriously injured she may be.”
Ahead of the fiery incident, TMZ said the star had creashed into a garage at an apartment complex.
When neighbors tried to get her out of the car, she put it in reverse and sped off.
James Tupper, Heche’s ex-huisband, wrote on Instagram about the situation.
“Thoughts and prayers for this lovely woman, actress and mother tonight Anne Heche ,” he wrote, alongside a photo of their son.
“We love you.”
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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