Australian man killed in LA wildfires as crews race to contain blazes
The Los Angeles wildfires has claimed the life of an Australian man as firefighters race to contain blazes and more evacuations get underway.
An Australian man living in California has been killed in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
The tragic death of Rory Callum Sykes, 32, was confirmed in a statement written by his mother and shared to social media.
Shelly Sykes said her son, who was born blind and with cerebral palsy, had “overcome so much” in his life before it was cut short on January 8.
“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,” she wrote.
“(Rory) 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.”
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. British born Australian living in America, a wonderful son, a gift born on mine & his grandmas birthday 29 July 92, Rory Callum… pic.twitter.com/X77xyk83gx
— Shelley Sykes (@shelleysykes) January 9, 2025
British-born Rory, who was the founder of Happy Charity, was described by his mother as a “true humanitarian”.
“He overcame so much with surgeries & therapies to regain his sight & to be able to learn to walk,” she said.
Rory moved to Australia as a child and went to school in Sydney. He had been residing in the US more recently.
Firefighters battling devastating wildfires around Los Angeles have made some progess containing the historic disaster that has so far scorched more than 35,000 acres and killed at least 11 people.
President Biden told reporters Friday the death toll will likely increase.
“Whether it’s significantly or not, we don’t know yet,” Biden said. “There are still a lot of people who are unaccounted for. We don’t know where they are.”
As of 10pm Friday local time (5pm Saturday AEDT), local authorities confirmed 11 people had died and around 12,000 homes, workplaces and structures had been damaged or destroyed.
A new evacuation order was issued, extending to the Encino Reservoir, Brentwood and the foothills of the San Fernando Valley.
The days-long battle against at least five wildfires burning across the area has Los Angeles residents on edge as new fires seem to spark in and around the city each day, prompting additional evacuation orders and worries more homes, like thousands of others, could be lost. More evacuation orders arrived Friday as a new brush fire threatened homes in the city’s Granada Hills neighbourhood.
At least 10,000 homes, businesses and other structures have been destroyed. More than 150,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes — and 166,000 others are under evacuation warnings. By Friday, the two largest fires — one that burned through the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, and another that devastated Altadena and Pasadena — were considered among the five most destructive wildfires in state history, according to preliminary data from the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
Dangerous conditions are likely to persist through Friday with winds reaching 40 miles (64km) an hour in some areas, forecasters said, subsiding slightly into the weekend. Firefighters view the weekend as their best shot to make progress containing the massive blazes – with conditions ripe for extreme fire spread forecast to return Monday. “We expect the winds to weaken tonight going into Saturday and that’s really what’s going to help alleviate the fire danger,” Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Friday.
“It really is a race against time for fire crews to get things under control before the strong, hot winds pick up again,” he said.
Firefighters battling the Palisades fire said they had turned a corner in the fight against the blaze, which had surpassed 20,000 acres by Friday morning. The fire, which destroyed more than 5,000 structures, was 8 per cent contained on Friday.
“We’re headed in the right direction. We see the winds calmer today, they’re still here, but these are the winds we’re used to battling and dealing with during these fires,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Brent Pascua said early Friday. “Nothing like we saw the first two days.”
The Eaton fire in the Pasadena area had razed as many as 5000 buildings, spanning nearly 14,000 acres with 3 per cent containment Friday. The fire on Thursday afternoon encroached on Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains, home to a historic observatory and a number of broadcast transmitters. No buildings were destroyed. A firefighter fell battling the fire and was hospitalised, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone. He is expected to make a full recovery, Marrone said.
With tens of thousands of people forced to leave their homes, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Friday that a number of arrests had been made related to looting. California National Guard units were on the ground to support local law enforcement.
A man was taken into custody over a possible arson near the West Hills neighbourhood, where a new blaze known as the Kenneth fire broke out Thursday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. LAPD Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said there wasn’t enough probable cause to arrest the man for arson; he was arrested on a felony probation violation.
That fire prompted new evacuation orders as it spread to 1,000 acres. But firefighters quickly slowed its spread, with 35 per cent containment. No homes were damaged or destroyed and evacuation orders were lifted by Friday.
A firefighting aircraft tasked with dumping water over the Palisades fire collided with a drone over the blaze Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The incident damaged and grounded the aircraft. Drones have long posed a hazard to firefighting, halting aerial operations that are crucial to slowing the spread of massive wildfires.
Firefighters from as far as Canada have been called to provide support to the more than 7,500 personnel already on the ground trying to combat the blazes.
Hundreds of firefighters have gathered at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena each morning to hear their objectives for the day fighting the Eaton fire. Among them: minimise damage to structures, fight fires safely but aggressively, protect historic and cultural resources.
Tents sprawled on the grass outside the Rose Bowl and trailers in the parking lot prepared to house the crews as they worked around the clock for the next several weeks.
As active fires continue to rage across the city, some firefighters are embarking on less glamorous, but essential work further from the action.
Several crews of hotshots, considered among the most elite jobs in wildfire fighting, scrambled up and down hills Thursday with axes and chainsaws to cut a containment line between areas that already burned and untouched vegetation. The gruelling assignment lasted hours as the crews inched across miles of the burn zone perimeters.
“Everyone wants to look to where the big flame is, and you don’t realise there’s this little sneaky enemy right here,” said Andrew Freeborn, a public information officer, pointing to a smouldering pile of branches below where a US Forest Service crew worked. “And next thing you know you have a fire going raging in some new canyons.”
The Los Angeles wildfires could prove the costliest in U.S. history: One JPMorgan analyst estimated total economic losses at close to $US50 billion. With the fires still gaining ground and the true extent of the damage unknown, the final tally of insurance losses is likely to vary markedly from initial estimates.
Ricardo Lara, the state’s insurance commissioner, issued a one-year moratorium to prevent insurance providers from cancelling or not renewing their policies on homes in the most affected areas. He also called on providers to halt any pending non-renewals or cancellations over the last 90 days.
“Now is the time for you to focus on your family and on your health,” Lara said Friday. “The last thing you should be worrying about is your insurance.” The causes of the fires currently burning in and around Los Angeles are currently unknown and under investigation.
Biden, speaking to reporters Friday, voiced support for burying power lines underground to reduce wildfire risk. Power lines have sparked a number of deadly wildfires in recent years.
“When I say build back better, build back in a way that will diminish the prospect that the change in the weather, in the environment, is going to continue to cause this devastation,” Biden said. “We can protect against much of it, but it is going to cost a lot of money.”
All schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the country’s second largest, were closed again Friday. The University of California, Los Angeles, located in the city’s Westwood neighbourhood, cancelled undergraduate classes Friday, and the University of Southern California told students in-person classes would resume as scheduled Monday following winter break. More than 200,000 customers were without power early Friday across Southern California.
While strong winds are likely to continue into Friday and through the weekend, even a slight drop in speeds could give firefighters a foothold in their attempts to tame the fires.
The weather service said it didn’t forecast any rain in the region for the next seven days.
Forecasters warned of a significant risk of fires further south in the San Diego area over the coming days. “Conditions down there east of San Diego could be even worse than we’ve seen in Los Angeles,” Hurley, the NWS meteorologist, said. “It looks like really favourable conditions for wildfires.”
Tarini Parti contributed to this article.
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