Kiwi actor fights for life in US hospital

Eitan Djiji acted in the 2009 comedy My Homework Ate My Dog. Photo / Facebook

An aspiring New Zealand actor and singer, Eitan Djiji, 14, is fighting for his life in Los Angeles County-USC Medical Centre, where his condition was was listed late yesterday as grave.

Firefighters rescued the boy from the top floor of a two-storey house at Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles, after his New Zealand mother, Pauline, 50, father and younger sister fled the early morning blaze.

Eitan's father, Gigi Djiji, 58, a local building contractor, was initially treated for burns at the scene, and the boy's 12-year-old sister suffered burns and respiratory problems and was also taken to hospital.

Their mother refused treatment at the scene, the Los Angeles Daily News reported on its website.

Eitan - who attended Prebbleton School in Christchurch - was due to start school in a few months' time as a freshman at the High School for the Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles, school district officials said.

He 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.

He has also performed as a singer and stand-up comic.

On his wikispaces.com page, Eitan said he used to live in Christchurch, and is now an actor living in America who had shot a short film "which will not be in NZ ever".

Neighbours heard explosions about 6.30am, then saw flames swirling from the family's 86-year-old home in a historic neighbourhood just north of the Los Angeles River.

The fire took 37 minutes for 75 firefighters from 12 fire stations across the San Fernando Valley to extinguish.

A team of four firemen was twice beaten back by flames in their attempts to get to Eitan.

Hours after the blaze, Eitan's older brother spoke to firefighters about retrieving some belongings, then became teary-eyed at the scene.

- NZPA