A Southern California community is rallying around the woman whose home caught fire after being struck by actress Anne Heche’s car last week.
Neighbors have raised more than $50,000 to support Lynne Mishele after her Mar Vista home was destroyed in the crash that left Heche hospitalized with significant burns but in stable condition.
The online fundraiser set up by two neighbors over the weekend has received more than $57,000 a day after it launched.
“Lynne lives with her beautiful pups Bree and Rueban, and tortoise Marley in the Mar Vista home that was destroyed this week by a car driving into the home at a high rate of speed, catching the house on fire,” reads the GoFundMe page organized by Jennifer Durand.
“Lynne and her family very narrowly escaped physical harm, and for that we are very, very grateful.”
Durant says the fundraiser is also being operated by a man named John, with “many” of their neighbors sharing support as well.
Another neighbor, Lynne Bernstein, told People that Mishele is “extremely fortunate” to be alive. Mishele and her pets made it outside of the home without any reported injuries.
The 53-year-old Heche, who received a Daytime Emmy in 1991 for the soap opera “Another World,” was intubated after crashing her blue Mini Cooper into the house and is expected to survive, according to TMZ.
Heche’s car went “almost all the way through” the home, which caught fire nearly immediately, witnesses said. The incident occurred before 11 a.m. local time, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Mar Vista is part of Los Angeles and is located about 12 miles west of the city’s downtown area.
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