Rory Sykes, former child star, dies at 32 in California wildfires

Rory’s former child actor Callum Sykes died Wednesday, Jan. 8, in a fire in the Palisades, according to his mother, Shelley Sykes. He was 32.

Rory, an Australian actor who has been blind since birth and has cerebral palsy, has starred in a British TV show “Kids’ Capers.” In addition to his work in front of the camera, Rory has also acted as a motivational speaker and helped set up the Happy Charity with his mum.

Sykes tried to evacuate their home to Malibu when Palisade fire caught fire, but due to limited resources, including electricity, there were difficulties in connecting the emergency services.

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“He was my baby, and he died needlessly,” Sykes said Australia’s top 10 news.

Sykes said her son lived in a guest house on the family’s 17-acre property in Malibu Canyon. When the Palisade Fire took over the community, it had no form of communication with the outside world.

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“Guess what didn’t work? 911 — all the phone lines were down,” she said. “He said, ‘Mom, leave me,’ and no mom can leave her child. My arm is broken; I couldn’t pick him up. I couldn’t move him.”

While trying to evacuate, she went to the local fire station for help and was told they had “no water.”

“I said, ‘Oh my God, my son is locked in his room,'” Sykes recalled. “When the firemen brought me back, his cottage was burnt to the ground.”

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Born in the UK, Sykes moved to Australia as a child. he wrote a book Callum’s Medicine which detailed his determination not only to walk one day but also to see.

“He died of carbon monoxide poisoning, not of burning,” Sykes said she was told by firefighters. “I didn’t want pain for my child.”

Sykes is considering a class-action lawsuit and is staying put for now.

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“I’m not going to move,” Sykes said. “It’s going to be a place, a special place for Rory and I, and we’re going to make it even more beautiful than it already is.”

This was reported by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on Sunday Palisade fire 23,713 acres burned and now 11% contained. Five deaths have been reported since the fire broke out on Tuesday, January 7.

Less than 30 miles from Eaton, the Altadena fire, which also started Jan. 7, has burned 14,117 acres and is now 27% contained. Eleven deaths have been confirmed.

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