Rory Callum Sykes mother cries on TV, says son died needlessly

The death of former child star Rory Callum Sykes has put a question mark on the effectiveness of the rescue operation amid LA fires. He was 32.

Callum's death was announced by his mother Shelly Sykes on social media. 

She later appeared on an Australian news channel and said her "baby died needlessly". Guess what didn't work, 911." 

She said “I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off by Las Virgenes Municipal Water.” “Even the 50 brave firefighters had no water all day". 

She wrote Thursday: “It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my beautiful son Rory Sykes to the Malibu fires yesterday.”

The TV channel apparently treated his death as a loss of an Australian man in the disaster which has hit Los Angeles in the form of deadly wildfires. The broadcaster had not knowledge that Rory Callum was former child star.

People Magazine reports that the British-born Sykes had been living in Sydney, Australia, before recently relocating to the US.

His mother wrote that Sykes was in a cottage on his family’s 17-acre Malibu estate when he died, that she was unable to put out the cinders on the roof of her son’s cottage because the water was switched off.

People reports that, amid criticism about reports of lack of water, LA officials said there was a temporary drop in water pressure and some water tanks ran dry due to “tremendous demand.”

Sykes was blind by birth and had a condition called cerebral palsy which effects movement and posture. It's caused by damage that occurs to the developing brain, most often before birth.