An aspiring Christchurch-raised actor remained gravely ill today after being rescued from his blazing Los Angeles home on Tuesday.
Fourteen-year-old Eitan Djiji is on life support in Los Angeles County-USC Medical Centre.
Eitan was pulled unconscious from the top floor of his family's burning Los Angeles two storey house after his New Zealand mother, 50-year-old Pauline, known as Polly, father and younger sister fled the early morning blaze.
Neighbours heard explosions about 6.30am (US time), then saw flames swirling from the family's 86-year-old home in a historic neighbourhood just north of the Los Angeles River.
It took 37 minutes for 75 firefighters from 12 fire stations across the San Fernando Valley to extinguish the fire, and a team of four firemen was twice beaten back by flames in their attempts to get to Eitan.
A Christchurch family friend told NZPA the family didn't think Eitan would survive.
"It's the worst thing that you can imagine."
Eitan's father, 58-year-old Gigi Djiji, a local building contractor, was initially treated for burns at the scene, and his 12-year-old sister suffered burns and respiratory problems and was also taken to hospital.
Eitan's mother refused treatment at the scene, the Los Angeles Daily News reported on its website.
Eitan, a former pupil of Prebbleton School in Christchurch, was due to start at the prestigious High School for the Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles in few months.
The friend said the family had moved to the United States about four years ago after Eitan's American father had commuted between the two countries.
Everybody still remembered them and talked about them a lot, she said.
"It's a really lovely family. They are just lovely. Took part in everything."
Eitan is credited on various websites with playing Teddy on My Homework Ate My Dog, a 2009 comedy film about a kid who never does his homework, and has also performed as a singer and stand-up comic.
On his wikispaces.com page, Eitan said he used to live in Christchurch, and was now an actor living in America who had shot a short film "which will not be in NZ ever".
