Child star Rory Sykes died of monoxide poisoning at his home in Malibu on Wednesday, January 8, during the Los Angeles wildfires, his mother has confirmed in a heartbreaking statement.
The British-born actor, who appeared in the 1990s TV series Kiddy Kapers, was trapped inside the beach city cottage when it burst into flames amid the wildfires that continue to devastate large swathes of California.
Shelley Sykes said she had tried to rescue her 32-year-old son, who was born blind and was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but discovered that the property’s water supply had been turned off.
The traumatised mum rushed to get help from the local fire department, but by the time she returned, the cottage had been completely destroyed with Rory still inside it.
“He said, ‘Mom leave me’ and no mom can leave their kid,” she told Australia’s 10 News First. “And I’ve got a broken arm, I couldn’t lift him, I couldn’t move him.
“I didn’t want any pain for my baby.”
“I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off by Las Virgenes Municipal Water,” she added in a statement on social media.
“Even the 50 brave firefighters had no water all day.”
Shelley said she was “totally heartbroken” over the news, describing her son as “a gift” and a “true humanitarian” who will be “incredibly missed”.
The Australian, who lived in the UK before moving to LA, told 10 News First that she had called 911 several times before driving around 400 metres from the family’s 17-acre estate to seek help for her son.
She was told by officials that his cause of death had been monoxide poisoning.
Rory had pursued a career of motivational speaking as a disability advocate after his stint as a child star and was the co-founder of Happy Charity, a non-profit aimed at offering “Hope, Happiness & Heath to those that are Hurting”.
“He overcame so much with surgeries and therapies to regain his sight and to be able to learn to walk,” Shelley wrote.
“Despite the pain, he still enthused about travelling the world with me from Africa to Antarctica. Rory was a sought after inspirational speaker for Tony Robbins when he was only eight years old,” she added.
Los Angeles governor Gavin Newsom ordered state officials to investigate why a 440 million-litre reservoir was out of service and some hydrants had run dry in the region on Friday.
Fire chief Kristen Cowley has also accused city leadership of failing her department by not providing enough money for firefighting or enough water to adequately tackle the emergency, which has destroyed more than 10,000 structures over 35,000 acres of land since Tuesday.
The death toll from the wildfires has risen to 16 this morning, a figure that officials expect to rise as searches of the levelled neighbourhoods continue.
Around 150,000 people in Los Angeles County have been given evacuation orders, among them celebrities including Harrison Ford and Kamala Harris, with the emergency response effort comprising 1,354 fire engines, 84 aircrafts and over 14,000 personnel.
