Anne Heche was reportedly trapped inside her vehicle for at least 40 minutes before being rescued by firefighters after she had crashed her car into a house last month.
The late actor smashed her Mini Cooper into a house in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles on August 5, which is understood to have led to a devastating fire.
She was on life support following the accident but was later pronounced de d, with a coroner declaring that she had died due to inhalation of smoke and thermal injuries.
It has now been reported that firefighters had been unable to begin lifesaving efforts on Heche, who was 53, for about 45 minutes after they first arrived at the scene.
NBC Los Angeles has said that it has obtained records and time-stamped recordings of radio communications from Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) about the incident.
It reports that the recordings from the fire department reveal that firefighters couldn't get access to Heche's car for at least 20 minutes after arriving at the scene in Mar Vista.
The outlet adds that it took at least another 20 minutes to pull the vehicle out of the burning building in order to rescue the actor, who was later transfered to hospital.
Richard Fields, deputy chief of LAFD, told the outlet: "Given the heavy fire and smoke conditions, it wasn't that you could clearly see into the vehicle or clearly be able to access it."
He explained that such conditions make it "very difficult" for firefighters to even see each other whilst on the inside of a "working structure fire".
NBC4 Los Angeles reports that, according to the recordings, the first LAFD fire engine arrived at the scene at 11.01 a.m.
It states that within seconds dispatchers radioed to say there was "a person stuck inside the vehicle" and paramedics are said to have been directed to treat a woman found in the home.
According to NBC4 Los Angeles, fire department records make it clear that medics treated the person who lived at the property - not the driver of the car.
It reports that at 11.18am, a firefighter radioed that there were wasn't anyone else inside, saying there were "no patients" - but four minutes later an incident commander began to ask again if there was a patient inside the vehicle.
Just minutes later, according to the records obtained by the outlet, a firefighter said he had found the driver - though he said they were "inaccessible" to crew at that present time.
Fields said the patient - now known to be Heche - had collapsed below the front seats of her vehicle. He said that the patient wasn't in the driver's seat but on the floorboard of the passenger seat.
NBC4 Los Angeles reports that once Heche was found and confirmed to be alive, crews used a heavy duty tow truck to pull the car - with her still inside - out of the burning home.
She is said to have been pulled from the wreckage at around 11.49am.
The outlet reports that she was initially treated at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center before being transferred for specialised care at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital.
Heche - who is known for films including Wag the Dog and Donnie Brasco - died at the medical facility a week later as a result of injuries that she sustained in the accident.
NBC4 Los Angeles reports that LAFD said that even if Heche had been identified in the wrecked car immediately, it's unlikely firefighters would have responded differently.
Fields said: "I would imagine, just based on some of the very experienced officers that were initiating the firefight, that they made the best effort they could to try to identify that someone was in the vehicle."
According to the outlet, an after-action presentation prepared for LAFD staff noted that it took 30 minutes to fight the fire to the point where a rescue could be made.
