An Australian who died in the Los Angeles wildfires can’t be added to the official death toll until cadaver dogs are able to find his body.
Rory Callum Sykes, 32, died when his cottage on his mother’s estate in Malibu burned down on Thursday.
He was born blind and with cerebral palsy and had difficulty walking, but had been able to lead a successful life and work as a motivational speaker.
His death came despite his mother Shelley Sykes’ desperate attempts to extinguish the fire with a garden hose.
‘He was my baby. I’m just sad we couldn’t save him,’ Ms Sykes said through tears on Channel Nine’s Today show on Sunday morning.
Mr Sykes was in his cottage on his mother’s 17-acre Malibu estate when the property was engulfed by fire.
‘Rory’s feet with the heat had started to swell, and he couldn’t walk very well,’ Ms Sykes said.
‘And he also had problems with his tummy, so he didn’t want to be far away from the bathroom,’ the distraught mother said.
Australian Rory Callum Sykes, 32, died when his cottage on his mother’s estate in Malibu burned down on Thursday. He is pictured with his mum, Shelley
‘So he said, Mum, you go, I’m staying. Well, there’s no way I could leave.
‘So I stayed in the main property with my two peacocks in a bathroom because it was hard to breathe. Sitting on the floor with bottled water and trying to keep wet.’
She kept an eye on Rory’s cottage, but then saw embers on the roof.
‘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 said.
‘Even the 50 brave firefighters had no water all day … I had to race back to the house, try and open the massive garage door that had no power, lift it, get the car out and drive half a mile (800m) to the fire station,’ she said.
Ms Sykes asked the firefighters to ‘please help Rory’
‘His cottage has got flames on it and I’ve got no water,’ she said.
But they had to tell her that they had no water either, and when they got to the house it was too late to save Mr Sykes.
At least 11 people have been killed as catastrophic fires (pictured) continue to rage through Los Angeles and police carry out a series of arrests for looting and arson
There was ‘nothing we could do’, she said. ‘When I got there, the three cottages were down to the ground and just black ash.
‘My house was fine, the big main house, but there were embers flying everywhere and it was hard to breathe.’
Ms Sykes said her son was a ‘very courageous man’ who had overcome huge difficulties in his life.
‘They said he’d never see or walk, and he defied all the odds,’ she said.
The heartbroken mum said her son ‘died needlessly’ after becoming trapped in the cottage.
‘He died with carbon monoxide poisoning rather than burning, I didn’t want any pain for my baby,’ she told 10News.
On social media, Ms Sykes said she was ‘totally heartbroken’.
She said Rory was a ‘wonderful son’ who ‘overcame so much with surgeries and therapies to regain his sight and to be able to learn to walk’.
Mr Sykes had appeared on Aussie television as a child, aiming to inspire others with his story.
‘Despite the pain, he still enthused about traveling the world with me from Africa to Antarctica.’
At least 11 people have been killed as catastrophic fires continue to rage through Los Angeles and police carry out a series of arrests for looting and arson.
More than 10,000 structures have been burned down, with a total of 29,053 acres of land scorched in one of LA’s most devastating ever disasters.
