The woman whose home was destroyed inAnne Heche’s recent car crash is rebuilding her life with some help from her community.
Lynne Mishele’s neighbor, Lynne Bernstein, tells PEOPLE the tenant “was extremely fortunate” to survive the accident with no injuries, after the Emmy Award winner, 53,crashed her car into the Los Angeles residenceon Friday, causing it to catch fire.
“So were the dogs and her turtle,” Bernstein adds of Mishele’s pets. The woman was in another section of her small home when the incident occurred.
Bernstein adds that Mishele “was in shock” before she even noticed the vehicle, as she saw him and two other neighbors inside her house trying to help everyone get out safely. “I don’t think she got what was going on. She said, ‘What happened? What happened?’ " he recalls.
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According to Bernstein, Heche’s vehicle drove “almost all the way through” the house and “almost immediately” caught fire. The Los Angeles Fire Department told PEOPLE that the accident caused “structural compromise” and “heavy fire” to the one-story home.
Lynne Mishele.Gofundme
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Heche has since been hospitalized and intubated after suffering burns, and her rep told PEOPLE on Saturday that she is “currently in stable condition.”
John and Jennifer Durand, who own the house that was destroyed, have since launched aGoFundMeto help Mishele cover the loss of “the place she loves” and most of her belongings.
Marissa Charles
They noted that the Los Angeles Fire Department “immediately red-tagged” the house and Mishele lost an “entire lifetime of possessions, mementos, all equipment for her business including her laptop and iPad, all of her clothing and basic necessities, and all household items.”
“With firefighters' help, she was able to pull a few damaged sentimental belongings from the wreckage. Everything else is gone,” they added.
The Durands urged supporters to donate to the campaign and patronize her home organization businessCreative OrganizationonInstagramandTikTok.
Anne Heche.Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
“A kind and generous person, Lynne is always first to offer help to others,” they wrote. “Today we are asking the community to come together and help Lynne start over.”
Heche was inside a blue Mini Cooper that crashed into Mishele’s home Friday morning on South Walgrove Ave. in the neighborhood of Mar Vista, causing the residence to catch fire.
LAFD responded to the call at around 10:56 a.m. It took 59 firefighters around 65 minutes to extinguish the flame and extract Heche from the driver’s seat, according to arelease.
Driving on Preston Way, Heche reportedly ran a stop sign at the Walgrove intersection and drove through some large privacy bushes before the car came to a stop inside the house, according toKTLA.
source: people.com
