A mother claims her son left her one last voicemail before he died in the Los Angeles fires

• Randall “Randy” Miod is one of at least 24 people who died in the attack ongoing fires in Los Angeles which also left 23 missing
• His mother, Carol Smith, tells PEOPLE her son didn’t evacuate because he thought he could stop the fire with a hose
• “Everyone in Malibu knew him,” he says. “I mean, he’s more than a legend. He is almost an icon.”

Carol Smith remembers the last telephone conversation she had with her son, Randall “Randy” MiodA 55-year-old resident of Malibu, California, on Tuesday, January 7 – the day the fire broke out in Pacific Palisades.

“He always called me whenever there was a fire coming,” Smith, of Banning, tells PEOPLE. “On Tuesday, when I talked to him, he almost cried and said, ‘Mom, there’s another fire in Palisades. I see smoke. I said, “Randy, grab the cat and go to the shelter.” Don’t worry me. ”

She added: “I was very worried about him because in all the fires he went through, he never evacuated one. He always stayed. He always felt like he could flood the house with water with his hose.”

Miod is one of at least 24 people who died in the attack ongoing fires in Los Angeles which also left 23 missing.

Smith adds that he later called again and left a voicemail repeating their last conversation together. “The last thing he said to me was, ‘Pray for Palisades and pray for Malibu and I love you.’ ” She explains: “He called me at home, but I wasn’t here, and he left a message on my phone, the same message we talked about when he called me on my cell phone. I have this message and I will keep it forever.”

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Smith says authorities found her son, who apparently died the next day, Wednesday, Jan. 8, behind her Malibu home as she tried to protect him.

“I don’t think he ever knew what hit him,” he says. “Detectives said this type of fire, or any fire, just sucks the wind out of you… They performed an autopsy and found he had enough lung tissue left to determine he died from smoke inhalation and thermal heat. ”

Honey was the only child of Smith and her ex-husband. He remembers his son as an avid surfer and skateboarder in his youth. “In high school, he would skip classes to go to the beach,” Smith says. “At one point I had to hide his board because he spent more time at the beach than at school.”

In his twenties, Miod moved to Malibu and rented a studio apartment attached to the house he later bought and which became known as the “Crab Shack.”

“He had an open-door policy there,” Smith tells PEOPLE of his son. “He had a lot of friends who came and went from there, and you know, he partied a lot, and that lifestyle suited him perfectly. He was party.”

His mother also says that Miod was a born-again Christian, describing him as handsome, funny and intelligent. “He attended Santa Monica City College and earned a degree in photography. He took some professional photos. He was transported to Canada by plane Pamela Andersonand she bought a property there that she was thinking about at the time, and she wanted Randy to go there and take pictures of it.

He adds: “He knew Ryan O’Nealson, Redmond. He knew everyone, he knew all the stars. But to him, they were just ordinary people like him. None of these events impressed him and he treated everyone the same. He was a very unpretentious guy. He was very humble. He was by no means a materialist.”

Miod was also a beloved member of the Malibu community, according to Smith, saying, “He loved life and loved people. He acted like a magnet for people. Everyone in Malibu knew him. I mean, he’s more than a legend. He is almost an icon.”

“I was just talking to a friend of his today and he said they’re probably going to write songs about him. It will probably be at Duke’s, which is a very famous restaurant in Malibu. They will probably hang a big picture of him on the wall along with all the other legendary surfers in Malibu,” he continues.

The surfer has been struggling over the past year when he lost his job, broke a finger that required surgery, and had to say goodbye to his beloved cat, which died. His home was located on the Pacific Coast Highway, where other vehicles came around the corner and struck the residence and Miod’s cars.

“I told him, ‘Sell this house and move,’ because of the fires (and) the cars that keep breaking down,” Smith recalled. “I even told him recently, ‘Randy, sell this house, take the money and buy a place somewhere else where you can be safe because you’re getting old and it’s just too much stress. But this was his life, he wasn’t going to leave this house because he had so many good memories there.

Smith says her son left a legacy that included friends who loved him dearly. “He never married and had no children,” he says. “He always said to me: ‘Mom, I’m waiting for a good Christian…’ She is a nice person who loves children. I don’t know a single person who has anything negative to say about him – no one.”

“So I’m proud that he ultimately turned out to be the person he was,” Smith continued. I will have really good memories with him, starting from day one.”

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