As well as suffering burns, the actress was left with "a severe anoxic brain injury" - when the brain is deprived of oxygen According to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), Heche's vehicle "erupted in heavy fire", which took 59 firefighters more than an hour to fully extinguish. The two-storey home she crashed into was left "uninhabitable".
As well as suffering burns, the actress was left with "a severe anoxic brain injury" - when the brain is deprived of oxygen - her family said.