Torched

CBS News Correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti’s story of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the failures that led to disaster, and the fight over who decides how to rebuild for the 2028 Olympic Games and beyond.

In Torched, CBS News Correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti delivers a riveting first-person account of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, weaving together the chaos of the blaze, the century of unchecked development that set the stage for disaster, and the flawed response that followed.

Written with clarity and verve, Vigliotti balances the facts of the destruction with an ever-present hope for the future of his adopted home. He tells human stories of survival, the arduous work of recovery, and the many forces that came running after the disaster to exploit the chaos for personal gain. This account unravels this catastrophe by placing it within the larger history of Los Angles, a city that has in many ways been defined by the very resilience, attraction to reinvention, and deference to those who “move fast and break things” that now puts Los Angeles at risk of a shortsighted post-fire rebuild. One that would potentially do too little to prevent similar disasters in the future or address the rampant inequities the Los Angeles/Palasades blaze brought to attention.