US actress Anne Heche was reportedly taken to hospital in a "critical condition" after a collision left her vehicle “engulfed in flames”.
The incident happened near Heche’s home on Friday morning in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles.
The actress, 53, is the former partner of US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, and is known for playing roles in films including Donnie Brasco, Cedar Rapids, and Psycho.
Pictures and video footage obtained by US media outlet TMZ showed Ms Heche driving a blue Mini Cooper, which was later pictured severely damaged at the scene.
The vehicle struck a two-storey home and “erupted in heavy fire” according to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).
“59 firefighters took 65 minutes to access, confine and fully extinguish the stubborn flames within the heavily damaged structure,” an LAFD report stated.
“One female adult (was) found within the vehicle, who has been taken to an area hospital by LAFD Paramedics in critical condition.”
The LAFD also confirmed to the PA news agency that the vehicle had driven 30ft into the residence but that the occupant had escaped without injury.
The building was left “uninhabitable”, spokesman Brian Humphrey added.
Heche began dating DeGeneres in 1997 but separated in 2000.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article