Radio Traffic Shows it Took LA FFs 45 Minutes to Extricate Actress from Car

California firefighters who responded to a fiery crash last month that claimed the life of actress Anne Heche didn't reach her to begin treatment for about 45 minutes.

Los Angeles City Fire records as well as radio communications obtained by NBC4 I-Team show crews didn't get access to her car for about 20 minutes and it took another 20 to have it pulled from the burning home.

Medics were directed to treat a woman firefighters found in the home, but it’s now clear that was the person who lived there, not the driver of the car, LAFD Deputy Chief Richard Fields told reporters.

“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,” Fields told the I-Team. “Heavy smoke conditions, heavy fire conditions, which makes it very difficult for us to just see each other on the inside of a working structure fire."

At 11:18 a.m. a firefighter reported they didn't have anyone else in the house. Four minutes later, an incident commander asked again about patients, mainly the driver, the station reported.

“Let me clear this up, so – you do have a patient in the car?" they said over the radio.

At 11:25 a.m. a firefighter is heard advising he found the driver, pinned against the floorboard below the front seats of her Mini Cooper, according to recordings. 

“I will say that that where the person was in the vehicle was not in the driver's seat, but on the floorboard of the passenger seat,” he said.

A tow truck pulled the car out of the home so crews could gain access. She was extricated at 11:49 a.m., according to radio traffic obtained by the media. 

She was treated at a local hospital before being transferred to the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital. Heche died 7 days later of inhalation and thermal injuries, the investigative reporter said noting the death certificate. 

Fire officials said even if firefighters had realized she was in the car it was unlikely they would have conducted operations differently.

The LAFD said that even if Heche’s presence in the wrecked car had been confirmed immediately it is unlikely firefighters would have responded differently.

“I would imagine, just based on some of the very experienced officers that were initiating the firefight, that they made the best effort they could to try to identify that someone was in the vehicle,” Fields told the reporter.“Our firefighters were doing everything.”