‘Like a ton of bricks just fell on me’: What we know about victims of ‘most destructive’ fire in LA history
At least 24 people have died from devastating wildfires
Wildfires have ravaged more than 40,000 acres across Los Angeles, resulting in at least 24 deaths.
The Pacific Palisades fire, one of the most destructive the city has seen, is now at 11 percent containment.
The fire as of Sunday had scorched more than 23.000 acres, while the Altadena and Pasadena-based Eaton fire has burned 14,117 acres, according to figures from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
More than 12,000 structures, including homes and local landmarks, have been consumed by the blazes, and thousands of residents have evacuated.
The Los Angeles medical examiner announced it received notification of 16 fire-related fatalities on Saturday with the death toll expected to climb.
Identification could take several weeks, as investigators are hampered by difficult conditions created by the fires.
The majority of the casualties were found in Altadena and Pasadena, where the Eaton fire has raged.
Here’s what we know about the victims.
Dalyce Curry
Dalyce Curry, a 95-year-old grandmother and actress, was discovered dead close to her home in Altadena in the wake of the Eaton Fire. Curry had been missing since last Tuesday.
Her granddaughter, Dalyce Kelley, told ABC Los Angeles that she brought Curry home on Tuesday night after the elderly woman had spent the day undergoing tests at a local hospital. Kelley told the station that she left Curry, who was lovingly known by Momma D, alone as she had to tend to other family members and, like many, did not think that the fire would inflate to its current size.
Curry appeared in movies such as The 10 Commandments, Blues Brothers and Lady Sings the Blues, the ABC affiliate report added.
Rodney Nickerson
An 83-year-old grandfather from Altadena is among the victims of the Eaton fire.
Rodney Nickerson’s daughter, Kimiko Nickerson, gave a heartbreaking interview outside the little that remains of the family home in Altadena, where she described how her father refused to evacuate on Tuesday night.
“He’s been living here since 1968, this is the house that I came home to as a child. I’ve been here my whole life,” Kimiko Nickerson told CBS News.
“My son tried to get him to leave, and my neighbors and myself, and he said, ‘I’ll be fine and I’ll be here when you guys come back.’
“He said his house would be here. His house was here and he was here too. He was in his bed when I found him.”
Nickerson worked at Lockheed Martin for 45 years as a project engineer.
His great-grandfather, William Nickerson, founded the largest public house development in L.A. — the Nickerson Gardens in Watts.
Charles Mortimer
One of two people named by the medical examiner, 84-year-old Charles Mortimer died in hospital on January 8 from a heart attack after suffering from smoke inhalation and fire-related injuries, according to the examiner’s office.
Victor Shaw
Victor Shaw, 66, was killed in the Eaton fire trying to protect his 55-year-old family home, relatives told KTLA.
Shaw lived with his younger sister Shari Shaw, who tried to push him to evacuate on Tuesday night as the blaze neared.
But he didn’t listen. He told his sister that he wanted to try to fight the fire and defend their home in Altadena.
“When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back, and I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm – I had to save myself,” Shari Shaw told KTLA. “And I looked behind me, and the house was starting to go up in flames, and I had to leave.”
On Wednesday morning, his family found his body near their home; he was holding a hose in his hand, the outlet reported.
A family friend told the outlet: “It looks like he was trying to save the home that his parents had for almost 55 years.”
“I fell to the ground, and I didn’t know – I didn’t want to look at him,” the sister said. “They just told me that he was lying on the ground and that he looked serene, as if he was at peace.”
Anthony and Justin Mitchell
A father and son with severe mobility and health conditions are among the victims of the Eaton fire, their family confirmed.
Grandfather and amputee Anthony Mitchell, 67, and his son Justin, who in his early 20s and bedbound suffering from cerebral palsy, were unable to evacuate on Wednesday, according to his daughter.
Hajime White, Mitchell’s daughter who lives in Arkansas, last spoke to her father on Wednesday morning, The Washington Post reports.
“He said, ‘Baby, I’m just letting you know the fire’s broke out, and we’re going to have to evacuate,’” White recalled. “Then he said, ‘I’ve gotta go — the fire’s in the yard.’”
After their phone call, White got the news a few hours later that they didn’t survive the blaze. “It’s like a ton of bricks just fell on me,” she told the paper.
White said that Mitchell’s other son Jordan, also in his 20s, normally lived at the Altadena home but was in the hospital with an infection.
Erliene Kelly
Grandmother Erliene Kelly lost her life in the Eaton fire, her granddaughter Briana Navarro confirmed.
Kelly lived in her Altadena home for more than 40 years with other members of the family, who decided to evacuate on Tuesday night.
“However my grandmother decided she wanted to stay,” Navarro said, writing on a GoFundMe page.
“After we left, I asked my dad to go to the house to check on her.. and again, she said she was going to stay at home. She said, ‘It’s in God’s hands.’”
Tragically, when Navarro’s father went to check on the house on Wednesday morning, it was completely destroyed.
Navarro said the family lost everything in the blaze and set up the fundraising page to help them rebuild.
Rory Callum Sykes
Rory Callum Sykes, a British-born former child actor, has died in the wildfires that have devastated California this week.
Sykes, who featured in the Australian TV series Kiddy Kapers, was at his family’s home in Malibu when he died at the age of 32.
The news was announced on X/Twitter by his mother, Shelley Sykes, who also starred in the 1998 reality series.
“It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my beautiful son @Rorysykes to the Malibu fires yesterday,” Shelley wrote.
Sykes was more recently known as a video game streamer and had been living in Sydney, Australia, before recently immigrating to the US. He had been born blind and with cerebral palsy; during an appearance on the Australian talk show Kerri-Anne as a child, he and his mother discussed the surgeries he had undergone to restore his sight.
His mother wrote that he was living in a cottage on his family’s large Malibu estate when the fires broke out.
“I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off by Las Virgenes Municipal Water,” she wrote. “Even the 50 brave firefighters had no water all day.”
Annette Rossilli
Annette Rossilli, 85, was found dead in her car after refusing to leave her Pacific Palisades home with her dog Greetly, her canary Pepper, her two parrots and her turtle, according to Luxe Homecare, who provided care for her three days a week.
She was encouraged to leave on Tuesday and her body was found by firefighters on Wednesday, according to CNN.
Randall ‘Craw’ Miod
Malibu’s Randy “Craw” Miod has been identified by his family after his body was found at his home, nicknamed the “Crab Shack” after it was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.
His mother, Carol Smith, told NBC News that her 55-year-old son, a surfer, “lived and died in the place he loved the most” and had been through several fires during the three decades he lived in Malibu.
“He will be remembered for his kindness, his loving spirit, his generosity, his laughter, the encouragement he gave others, for working hard and playing hard,” Smith said in a statement. “I don’t think he ever realized how much everyone loved and respected him, for just being Randy, ‘the craw.’”
She told CNN: “He used to cut class in high school to go surfing. I can remember one time I had to hide his surfboard.
“I said, ‘You are supposed to be in the school. You’re not supposed to be at the beach.’”
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