The mother of an Australian man killed in the Los Angeles wildfires has recounted her desperate efforts to save her son and has urged people to remember him as a "courageous" and "beautiful soul".
Rory Sykes died when the Palisades fire tore through the Malibu property he shared with his mother earlier this week.
The 32-year-old had cerebral palsy and was living in a self-contained cottage near the main house.
His mother, Shelley Sykes, says she raced to the cottage after spotting ash floating onto the roof. She says she tried to douse the building with a hose but there was no water.
"Rory locked the door. He wasn't coming out because he'd got swollen feet and he needed the bathroom ... and he said, 'Mum, just leave me, you go sort yourself out. I'm good,'" she told the ABC.
"No mum can leave their baby when there's a fire raging round about."
Ms Sykes says she rushed to the closest firefighting unit only to be told they did not have adequate water supplies either.
She was told to stay put while a team was deployed to the area.
When they returned, she said they solemnly asked her to come back to the property with them.
"My heart's pounding at 6 million miles an hour, but the shock when I got there … Everything, all three cottages that are fireproofed and built to code and everything, within an hour, had burnt to the ground," she said.
"There was nothing. It was black ash. There were no walls, there were no tiles from his shower. There was nothing standing. It was just blackened."
She said authorities were still working to formally confirm her son's death, given the extent of the damage.
'A beautiful soul'
Ms Sykes described Rory as a "compassionate" man who fundraised for charities and was involved in motivational speaking.
She said he was also a "computer nerd" who loved playing online games with people around the world.
"We need to let everybody know and inspire them that Rory was courageous and was a beautiful soul," she said.
"I was in a car accident when I was pregnant, and so he was born blind. They said he'd never see or walk. And he defied that.
"No life should be forgotten. And his was definitely a special one."
Mr Sykes was an Australian citizen who lived there as a child before moving to the United States.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the federal government was in close contact with his family.
"Our thoughts are with the family of Australian man Rory Sykes at this tragic time," Senator Wong said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"We continue to engage with Los Angeles authorities, who are working to confirm his death."
A spokesperson for the water authority in the area where the Sykes family lived denied that water was cut off to the area, telling NBC that there was an uninterrupted supply to local firefighters.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has called for an independent review into why some fire hydrants have run dry during the blazes, as well as why water was not available from a reservoir near the Palisades.
Death toll continues to rise in LA fire tragedy
The number of people confirmed dead in the fires has risen to 16, according to the coroner.
Five of the dead were found in the Palisades fire zone, and 11 in the Eaton fire zone.
The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner published a list of fatalities without giving details of any identities.
But some families are starting to come forward to pay tribute to their loved ones.
Among them is Randall "Randy" Miod, according to multiple US news outlets.
His mother told CNN the 55-year-old died in his treasured Malibu home, which friends nicknamed "the Crab Shack".
Family members have also told US media outlets that Anthony Mitchell died in his Altadena home, along with his son Justin.
Anthony Mitchell used a wheelchair after having a leg amputated last year and refused to leave Justin, who had cerebral palsy, relatives told NBC News.
