In a horrible tragedy coming because of the raging wildfires in California, Rory Sykes, a former child acting star from Australia who was born blind and had cerebral palsy, died on Wednesday, January 8. He did in the Southern California wildfires despite his mother’s frantic, last-ditch efforts to save him as the fires roared into their burning home in Malibu.
Such is what Rory’s mother, Shelley Sykes, announced on X (formerly Twitter), saying in her post on the matter that she was heartbroken by the death of her son. She said that he had lived with her on a 17-acre estate in Malibu, and that as the Southern California wildfires roared toward it embers kept landing on the house’s roof that she tried putting out with a hose, but the water was shut off and so doing so was impossible, and thus the house burned down.
Announcing his passing and immediately noting that it was because of the roaring fires that devastated much of Malibu that he passed, Shelly Sykes posted, “It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my beautiful son @Rorysykes to the Malibu fires yesterday. I’m totally heart broken.”
Continuing, she gave a bit of background on his life and work, saying, “British born Australian living in America, a wonderful son, a gift born on mine & his grandmas birthday 29 July 92, Rory Callum Sykes. @rorysykes was the founder with me of @happycharity a true humanitarian. He saw him self as the number one fan of @Apple & @tim_cook & most importantly an avid @RuneScape gamer!”
She continued, noting how he overcame his cerebral palsy, saying, “@rorysykes was born blind with cerebral palsy & had difficulty walking. He overcame so much with surgeries & therapies to regain his sight & to be able to learn to walk. Despite the pain, he still enthused about traveling the world with me from Africa to Antarctica.”
Continuing, and describing how some were able to use his story of overcoming his condition to inspire others, she then wrote, “@rorysykes was a sought after inspirational speaker for @TonyRobbins when he was only 8 years old. @CallumsCure book first published by @simonschuster in Australia was about his courage.”
And, returning to the utterly tragic topic of Rory’s passing, Ms. Skyes then described the house in which he lived and noted that it was destroyed by the fires, saying, “@rorysykes had his own cottage on our 17 acre Mount Malibu TV Studio estate, decked out with all the latest apple gadgets, which burnt down yesterday 8 Jan 2024 Malibu Fires.”
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Concluding, she noted that what happened was the water was switched off, and so she was unable to put out the flying embers that landed on her roof. She said, “I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off by @LVMWD Las Virgenes Municipal Water. Even the 50 brave fire fighters had no water all day! He will be incredibly missed by @shelleysykes, mama his pet peacocks Edgee & Mickie & all his online fans around the world!”
Watch a video she posted of what the very cool estate looked like here:
Featured image credit: Shelley Sykes on X