Shelley Sykes, a TV production entrepreneur, told Australian media of a desperate battle to save her 32-year-old son Rory Sykes, who had cerebral palsy. Sykes said on social media that she and her son lived in Malibu, a beachside city in Los Angeles County.
Rory Sykes, who appeared in British TV show “Kiddy Kapers” in the 1990s, had his own self-contained cottage on the estate, she said. He was blind and had difficulty walking.
Shelley Sykes said she saw embers on the roof of her son’s cottage and tried to extinguish them with a hose, but “there was no water coming out.”
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The Santa Monica Malibu district says it’s reopening all Santa Monica schools except one elementary school, but keeping Malibu schools shut through at least Wednesday “due to ongoing safety concerns of the Palisades Fire and the need for campus assessment, cleaning and road reopenings.”
And the Beverly Hills district says it’s “fully reopening” Monday. The district’s superintendent, Dr. Michael Bregy, says in a letter on the district’s website that the decision “was not made lightly.”
Eight suspected deaths were linked to the Palisades Fire while 16 were attributed to the Eaton Fire.
Only two of the victims were identified as of Sunday night. Charles Mortimer, 84, was killed in the Palisades Fire and Victor Shaw, 66, was killed in the Eaton Fire. Both died on Wednesday, according to the coroner’s office.
The blaze was first reported at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, hours after both the Palisades and Eaton fires had erupted elsewhere in Los Angeles County.
On Friday, SCE officials said a preliminary investigation revealed that a circuit in the Eagle Rock/Sylmar area experience a glitch in power at 10:11 p.m, just before the fire was reported. They also said a downed conductor was found near an electrical tower. The company says it’s unsure if the damage occurred before or after the fire broke out.
Thousands of people were forced to evacuate in the wake of news that the fire had broken out. All related evacuation orders have since been lifted. There was no structural damage sustained in the fire, crews said.
The office says winds during that span won’t be as strong as last week’s but will still be strong enough to cause “explosive fire growth.”
Gusts could be in the 45-70 mph range, with some “locally damaging,” the office says, adding that the relative humidity is forecast to be relatively low, in the 8-15% range. Higher humidity helps firefighters.
