Rory Sykes, who appeared on television shows as a child and later became a motivational speaker on living with disabilities, has died in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, according to his mother, Shelley Sykes. He was 32.
Shelley shared on X (formerly Twitter) that Rory, who was born blind and living with cerebral palsy, died at his family home in Malibu on Wednesday.
“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 heartbroken,” Shelley wrote on Thursday. “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. … He will be incredibly missed.”
Born on July 29, 1992, in the U.K., Rory moved to Australia as a child, where he attended school. He moved to the United States more recently, Australian outlet 9 News reported.
Shelley said her son was staying in a cottage on his family’s 17-acre “Mount Malibu TV Studio estate” when he died. She also told Australian outlet 10 News First that fire officials said her son died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
“I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off. … Even the 50 brave firefighters had no water all day,” she shared in her post on X. (The Associated Press reported that officials said some L.A. hydrants ran dry and experienced low pressure due to high demand.)
As a child, Rory made appearances on the British TV show Kiddy Kapers in 1998 and on the Australian TV show Mornings with Kerri-Anne in 2003. According to Rory’s website, he was also a philanthropist and a professional speaker and consultant for companies such as the Tony Robbins Foundation and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. His mother said he also co-founded Happy Charity and was an avid gamer on RuneScape.
Since Tuesday, when the initial wildfire broke out in Pacific Palisades before spreading to parts of Malibu and Santa Monica overnight, first responders across Los Angeles have been working tirelessly to contain active wildfires erupting across the county, including the Eaton, Hurst and Kenneth fires. The death toll has also risen to 11 people, the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday. (It’s unclear if Rory is included in the current death toll.)
As of Saturday afternoon, the Kenneth Fire was 80 percent contained; the Palisades Fire near the coastline was 11 percent contained; and the Eaton Fire was 15 percent contained. The Hurst Fire, south of Santa Clarita, was 77 percent contained.
