An amputee and his son with cerebral palsy were among the 16 deaths in the fires raging around Los Angeles. The father was found at his son’s bedside.
One victim told a relative that he did not want to evacuate. He died trying to fight the blaze that consumed his home of more than 50 years.
Another victim, an 85-year-old woman, refused to leave her home as the fast-moving Palisades Fire approached, preferring instead to stay behind with her beloved pets. A former child star from Australia also was among those who died, as well as a Malibu resident and surfer who was called a “magnet for people.”
Five of the 16 deaths appear related to the Palisades Fire near the Southern California coast, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. Another 11 deaths have been attributed to the Eaton Fire, which raged east of Los Angeles.
The complete death toll won’t be clear until it’s safe for investigators to enter neighborhoods where there are downed power lines, gas leaks, and other hazards, according to authorities.
Here’s what we know about the victims:
Annette Rossilli
Annette Rossilli, 85, insisted on staying in her Pacific Palisades home with her dog Greetly, her canary Pepper, her two parrots, and her turtle, according to Luxe Homecare, the company that provided in-home care for her three days a week.
The Palisades Fire, the largest of several blazes, started Tuesday morning. Rossilli was encouraged to leave on Tuesday afternoon.
A caregiver later offered to pick Rossilli up even though it was her day off, Fay Vahdani, Luxe Homecare president, said Friday. Neighbors tried to convince her to evacuate, but Rossilli refused to leave.
On Wednesday, firefighters found Rossilli’s body in her car, according to Vahdani and relatives of the victim.
Rossilli is survived by a daughter and a son. She ran a plumbing business in Pacific Palisades for many years with her late husband and continued to live in the same home after his passing.
“She was a kind, friendly, and grateful person who had many friends in the community and will be deeply missed,” Luxe Homecare said.
Anthony and Justin Mitchell
Anthony Mitchell, an amputee who used a wheelchair, last spoke to his daughter, Hajime White, who lives in Arkansas, on Wednesday morning, she told the Washington Post.
He told his daughter he planned to evacuate his home in Altadena, a neighborhood north of Pasadena, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Mitchell and his adult son Justin, who had cerebral palsy, lived together, White told the newspaper.
They never evacuated. White said authorities told her Mitchell’s body was found by the bed of his son.
“He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what,” White told the Post. “It’s very hard. It’s like a ton of bricks just fell on me.”
Erliene Kelley
Erliene Kelley chose not to evacuate on Tuesday night with her granddaughter and her family. She wanted to stay in the Altadena home where she’d lived for more than 40 years.
“It’s in God’s hands,” Kelley told family members, according to her granddaughter, Briana Navarro.
Navarro wrote in a GoFundMe post that the family was notified on Friday that Kelley had perished in the Eaton Fire.
“We made the choice to evacuate on Tuesday night; however, my grandmother decided she wanted to stay,” wrote Navarro. She later asked her father to check on Kelley, who again refused to evacuate.
Navarro’s father returned to the house on Wednesday and found it had been destroyed in the fire.
Navarro, her husband, and their two children lived with Kelley. They lost everything in the fire, according to the post.
Victor Shaw
Victor Shaw, 66, decided to try to fight the raging Eaton blaze with a garden hose this week rather than evacuate his longtime family home, according to KTLA.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has confirmed his death, noting he died at his home from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.
Shaw lived with his younger sister, Shari Shaw, who told KTLA the intensity of the approaching fire forced her to evacuate Tuesday night, but that her brother insisted on staying.
Rodney Nickerson
In one of his final phone calls, as the Eaton Fire approached his Altadena home, Rodney Nickerson said, “Son, the winds are picking up really, really bad.”
The son, Eric Nickerson, remembers every word of that last conversation with his father. They were extremely close and spoke every day.
“It was a normal conversation. Like most mornings,” Eric Nickerson told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday.
The younger Nickerson recalled not being able to reach his father later that Tuesday, nor the following morning.
After other family members and friends learned of Rodney’s death, they struggled to break the news to his son.
“They didn’t know what to tell me,” Eric Nickerson said. “They didn’t really know what words to tell me because of the situation.”
The close-knit, working-class neighborhood where Rodney Nickerson lived for more than 50 years – and where his son grew up – has been virtually destroyed by fire.
“It’s devastated,” Eric Nickerson lamented. “It looks like a movie set.”
Rory Callum Sykes
A former child star from Australia died when the Los Angeles wildfires ripped through his family’s Malibu estate in California earlier this week, according to his mother.
Rory Callum Sykes was at the family’s 17-acre Mount Malibu TV Studios estate, where he had his own cottage, when it burned down during the Palisades Fire on January 8, his mother Shelley Sykes wrote on X Thursday.
Shelley Sykes described her son, who appeared on the 1998 British TV series “Kiddy Kapers,” as “beautiful” and “wonderful” and said she was “totally heartbroken” by his death.
She said she had tried to put out the wildfire cinders on her property’s roof using a hose but couldn’t because the water wasn’t working.
“He said, ‘Mom, leave me,’ and no mom can leave their kid. And I’ve got a broken arm, I couldn’t lift him, I couldn’t move him,” Sykes told Australia’s 10 News First.
Her son, 32, was born blind with cerebral palsy and had become famous for his speeches on overcoming disability. He was the co-founder of Happy Charity, which according to its site offers, “Hope, Happiness & Health to those that are Hurting.”
“He overcame so much with surgeries and therapies to regain his sight and to be able to learn to walk. Despite the pain, he still enthused about traveling the world with me from Africa to Antarctica,” Shelley Sykes wrote on X.
Randall “Randy” Miod
Randall “Randy” Miod, 55, died in the place he loved most: his home.
That’s according to his mother, Carol Smith, who said Miod lived in the Malibu beach house for decades.
Detectives found human remains in Miod’s home, Smith said, telling CNN all his roommates have been accounted for.
“(His home) was his prized possession. That’s the one and only house he ever owned,” Smith said. “He just felt so blessed to be able to live in Malibu. That was his dream come true because he’d been surfing since he was a teenager.”
About 30 years ago, Miod rented a studio apartment attached to the house. After 13 years, the owner offered to sell the house for a discounted price – an opportunity Miod jumped on.
From there, the house on Pacific Coast Highway became locally known as “the Crab Shack,” Smith said. Miod had an open-door policy in which friends were constantly coming and going from the red barn-style home built in 1924, she said.
“He was just kind of a magnet for people. And people just loved him and he loved people. He was a very kind person,” Smith said. “There was always a party. Wherever Randy went, there was a party.”
Miod was determined to protect his beloved house.
When they talked on the phone Tuesday, he told Smith he had a garden hose ready to go. She believed he didn’t know how big the flames were going to get.
“He’d been through so many of these fires and made it through unscathed. I think he thought he could do it again,” Smith said. “Now that I’m realizing how many memories he had in that home, I can understand why he didn’t want to leave.”
Miod, who lived in California all his life, spent most of the last few decades managing restaurants and surfing.
“He used to cut class in high school to go surfing. I can remember one time I had to hide his surfboard,” Smith laughed. “I said, ‘You are supposed to be in the school. You’re not supposed to be at the beach.’”
She said the last year was a tough one for Miod, as he lost his restaurant job, broke a finger, and had to say goodbye to his cat of many years. However, Smith said he always kept a positive outlook on life and searched for the silver lining despite the hardship. He even recently picked up a new kitten.
“He was unique… I’ve never known another one like him,” Smith said.
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