Holding the powerful to account: Lessons from an LA fire
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April Austin Books Editor
The 2025 Pacific Palisades fire started in the hills above Los Angeles, fed by record-high winds and drought conditions. The blaze spread quickly, eventually destroying thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses. (A man has since been charged by federal prosecutors with arson.) It was made worse by a cascade of errors that included poor planning, political maneuvering, and a breakdown in the chain of command.聽
In the aftermath, the decision of the governor and mayor to fast-track rebuilding efforts, according to CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti, has left residents and business owners vulnerable to future problems. 鈥淭orched: How a City Was Left To Burn, and the Olympic Rush To Rebuild L.A.鈥� is an indictment of public officials who, Vigliotti argues, failed to heed the lessons of LA鈥檚 2018 Woolsey fire and badly fumbled the response in the Palisades.聽
Compounding the missteps was an underestimate by civic leaders of the effects of rising temperatures, high winds, and prolonged drought on fire intensity and spread. This was true not only in California 鈥� which already had some of the most stringent building codes in the United States 鈥� but also beyond. Vigliotti writes, 鈥淧acific Palisades isn鈥檛 just a California disaster. It鈥檚 a global warning. A parable of what happens when we fail to adapt to a changing world.鈥澛�
Why We Wrote This
In the aftermath of the 2025 Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles, decisions to fast-track rebuilding efforts have left residents and business owners vulnerable to future problems, according to CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti. His new book 鈥淭orched鈥� analyzes what went wrong, while highlighting how some structures survived the blaze.
The author is at his best when talking to experts and analyzing breakdowns in systems designed to protect public safety. He also places the Palisades fire in a larger context, noting: 鈥淣early half of American houses predate 1980, before today鈥檚 era of megafires, floods, and hurricanes. Yet even modern building codes lag behind the pace of warming. Leaders still permit 鈥� and subsidize 鈥� construction in the riskiest places, while first responders are left to hold the line with aging engines, thin crews, and tactics designed for a milder past.鈥澛�
He interviews a forensic wildfire investigator, Faraz Hedayati, who conducted fieldwork at the sites of homes that were not destroyed in the Woolsey and Palisades fires to understand how they survived. Hedayati found that greater resilience lay not only in newer building materials, but especially in the spaces between the houses. The more densely packed the development, the more opportunity for the fire to leap from one home to the next.聽聽
The author is critical of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was on an official trip to Ghana when the Palisades fire began, and of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Vigliotti argues that the two were more concerned about their respective political futures and that of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics than they were about the people affected. With an eye on federal disaster funds, they assured President Donald Trump that no slowdown in preparation for the Olympics would occur. And they lifted restrictions to speed rebuilding. In so doing, Vigliotti asserts, the door was left open for even denser neighborhoods than before the fire, as well as lingering safety concerns about toxic chemicals in the soil and air.聽
鈥淭orched鈥� offers a reporter鈥檚 keen take on an evolving story, and holds officials to account.
