"Totally heartbroken": Disabled Australian man dies in LA fires
A heartbroken mother has recalled the moment she tried to save her son from the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles.
In an emotional post on X, Shelley Sykes confirmed that her 32-year-old son, Australian citizen Rory Sykes, has died on Thursday after she lost the water supply to hoses she was using to extinguish embers on their home's roof.
Rory, who was born blind and with Cerebral Palsy, lived in a self-contained cottage at the back of the family’s home in Malibu, which was decimated by the ongoing fires in the Californian city.
"Rory's feet with the heat had started to swell, and he couldn't walk very well. And he also had problems with his tummy. So he didn't want to be far away from the bathroom," Shelley told Weekend Today.
"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."
Keeping an eye on her son’s cottage, Shelley sprang into action when she saw embers start to land on Rory’s roof.
After her calls to emergency services didn’t go through and no water came out of the garden hose, she jumped in her car and drove to the nearest fire station.
"They said, 'what are you doing? You're not supposed to be here'. And I said, 'please help Rory. His cottage has got flames on it and I've got no water',” she recalled.
"They said, 'Shelley, we've got no water either'."
When Shelley and the fire crews returned to try and save Rory, it was too late.
"When I got there, the three cottages were down to the ground and just black ash," she said.
"My house was fine, the big main house, but there were embers flying everywhere and it was hard to breathe."
Shelley said her son Rory was a "very courageous man" who had overcome huge adversity in his life.
"They said he'd never see or walk, and he defied all the odds," she said.
"He loved Australia. He grew up as an Aussie boy, and has the Aussie accent…. He was my baby."
British-born Rory moved to Australia as a child and attended school in Sydney but has been living in the US more recently.
Shelley said she is "totally heartbroken" by Rory’s death, writing on X, "A wonderful son, a gift born on mine & his grandma’s birthday... a true humanitarian.”
Image credits: X (Twitter)