Who is David Manpearl? Hero neighbor tried to pull Anne Heche out of flaming car
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A man living close to the site where Anne Heche had an almost fatal car crash on Friday, August 5, has shared the horrific details of the accident that left the actress in critical condition. David Manpearl revealed that he saw Heche's Mini Clubman speeding on Mar Vista street before crashing into a house.
Manpearl said that the speed of the vehicle was around 90mph at the time. His doorbell camera recorded the tragedy as it unfolded. He said, “At about 10:50 am I heard a car go speeding by and looked out my window where I saw the car going about 90 miles an hour. Within seconds I heard a loud crash at which point I ran outside in my flip flops because I knew someone was hurt and boy was I right.”
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In his interview to DailyMail, he elaborated, "Before I approached the car, I saw the resident of the home standing barefoot in the debris. She was in shock and frantically asked me to help get her pets out of the house. I was able to get the leashes for her two small dogs and escorted her out of the side of her house. She had her two dogs with her and a tortoise.”
Manpearl told DailyMail that he then approached the vehicle and found that the driver was stuck between the airbag and the seat. He said that he tried to talk to the person to ensure she was okay. “I tried speaking with her a few times asking if she was ok but she wasn't responding so I had to get closer. I was able to open the back door of the car and crawled half-way inside. This time when I asked her if she was ok, she said no,” he claimed.
The man also said that he again made an attempt to find out if Heche was fine and asked her to put her hand in the air but she couldn’t. During that moment, he felt water on him and soon discovered that it was another neighbor who was spraying water on the vehicle since it had caught fire which was spreading to the house. “I tried to talk to her again and noticed it was getting smokey and the flames were now on my right and my left so I quickly made my way out of the car,” Manpearl stated.
Manpearl said that after exiting the vehicle, he tried to help the other neighbor in putting out the flames. But soon saw that it did not make any sense because the house was almost destroyed. Also, by that time, around 10 fire trucks arrived on scene. Manpearl added: "I was positive that the driver was dead. That she had burned up. It took at least 30 minutes for the fire department to douse the flames, extract the car and pull her out of the car. I was surprised to find out that it was Anne Heche. I think I knew she had had problems in the past.”
As per an earlier report, police said, "The driver was speeding down a residential street and launched 30-feet into a home. The Mini Cooper involved in the crash was speeding and possibly hit a curb before launching at more than two feet through the front yard and into the home.” It also added that when the car smashed the house, the person living there was in the backyard, so they were unhurt.
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Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department told NBC Los Angeles, “Fifty-nine Firefighters took 65 minutes to access, confine and fully extinguish the stubborn flames within the heavily damaged structure, and rescue one female adult found within the vehicle, who has been taken to an area hospital by LAFD Paramedics in critical condition.”