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Former child actor Rory Callum Sykes died on Wednesday, January 8, a victim of the Palisades Fire, according to his mother, Shelley Sykes. He was 32 years old.
Rory, an Australian actor born blind and with cerebral palsy, took part in the British TV show “Kiddy Capers”. In addition to her work in front of the camera, Rory has also worked as a motivational speaker and helped set up the Happy Charity with her mother.
Sykes tried to evacuate the Malibu home Palisades Fire switched on, to make it difficult for emergency services to recover due to limited resources, including power.
Former child star Rory Callum Sykes has died aged 32. (X/Shelley Sykes)
“He was my baby, and he died in vain,” Sykes said Australia’s top 10 news.
Sykes said her son lived at the family’s 17-acre Malibu canyon lodge. As the Palisades Fire engulfed the community, it had no way of communicating with the outside world.
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“Guess what didn’t work? 911 – all the phone lines were down,” he said. “He said, ‘Mom, let me go,’ and a mother can’t let go of her child. I have a broken arm; I couldn’t lift it. I couldn’t move it.”
Trying to evacuate, he went to the local fire department for help, and they told him “they had no water”.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, my son is locked in his room,'” Sykes recalled. “When the fire department brought me back, his cabin had burned down.”
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British-born Sykes moved to Australia as a child. He wrote a book, “Callum’s Cure”, that determined the decision not only to walk one day, but to see it.
Firefighters watch as water falls from the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP)
“He died of carbon monoxide poisoning rather than burns,” Sykes said firefighters told him. “I didn’t want any pain for my baby.”
Sykes is raising a class action lawsuit, and it remains on hold for the time being.
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“I’m not going to move,” Sykes said. “That will be the place, the special place for Rory and I, and we will make it even more beautiful than it was before.”
An airship dropped off the Palisades Fire. (Brian van der Brug/Getty Images)
On January 8, 2025, in the Altadena area, a house went up in flames in the Eaton fire. (Josh Edelson/Getty Images)
The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection made the announcement on Sunday Palisades Fire It burned 23,713 hectares and is currently 11% contained. There have been five deaths since the fire broke out on Tuesday, January 7.
Less than 30 kilometers away, the Eaton Fire that also broke out in Altadena on January 7 burned 14,117 hectares and is now 27%. Eleven deaths have been confirmed.
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