Book Review: Torched, by Jonathan Vigliotti

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Flames, firestorms, and abject failure are the clear and present themes throughout CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti’s latest book, Torched.

Not just burned-out buildings and streets, not just charred lives and legacies, but burned credibility, flamed-out political careers, and the fake veneer of competence—which the Los Angeles City and County governments were supposed to provide Pacific Palisades—are on full, necessary display in his work.

For the worst mass fire in Los Angeles history, Vigliotti documents the before, during, and after that led to it all.

I was burned in mind and spirit after reading his excellent report, which starts with the rich history of the Pacific Palisades, from its early religious founding. Then he weaves together resonant stories of community and continuity, all the more deepening the justified outrage with the massive incompetence and unaccountability that ignited the historic conflagration of the Palisades.

At the outset, Vigliotti writes about local weather managers and surveyors, as well as meteorologists who repeatedly warned any city leaders who would listen. The city should have announced Red Flag warnings by New Year’s Eve 2024, going into New Year’s week 2025. Their warnings abounded as they plotted the rising Santa Ana winds, the low humidity, and the dry factors that would unleash unprecedented fiery carnage on Los Angeles.

Yet no one listened. How was this possible?

How could January 7th, 2025, have happened? After reading the book, the reader is left asking: “How could this NOT have happened?!”

Vigliotti was in the eye of the storm, reporting on the horrific fires that engulfed the once-unassailable Pacific Palisades.

His accurate and emotional reporting explores the wreckage of the recent past, including in painstaking detail (literally and figuratively) the failures, fallouts, and follies of the politicians tasked with keeping Los Angeles safe.

Reading this book, I got the eyewitness view of this massive, tragic conflagration inside and out, when most of Los Angeles was uninformed of the dangers then, and the full scope of failure up to now.

Through Torched, Vigliotti features the endearing stories of many survivors, like Raymond and Mandy Church, who took over the plumbing business from Hercules (Herk) and Annette Rossilli. This couple maintained their friendship with widow Annette Rossilli until the very end. When the flames began ravaging the Palisades, Annette wouldn’t leave her home. Vigliotti reports that many elders resist emergency evacuation orders in the face of firestorms. They have already lost family, and the remains of their life are enshrined in their homes. They leave that, and the home goes up in flames. What else do they have? With all of this in the background, Vigliotti reflects on Annette’s decision to stay behind and protect her pets, since she was banking on the (ultimately dashed) hope that the Palisades flames would not destroy her home.

She would not survive.

In another moving account, Vigliotti retells the final heroism of 32-year-old Rory Sykes, a former child star and motivational speaker born blind with cerebral palsy. This young man and his mother were caught off guard by the fire—again, due to multiple failures from the poorly manned and poorly planned Los Angeles emergency response. The son could not get into his wheelchair in time as the fires began destroying their home. He told his mother, “You can’t save me. Save yourself.” To the very end, Rory put the needs of others first. Throughout Torched, Vigliotti restores new life and attention to Rory and other heroes in the Palisades fire, all too easily forgotten in the midst of anger and demands for accountability. Even the writer rescued three pets from another home. Not grandstanding, Vigliotti simply relates that there were many small moments of successful heroism despite the epic failures of the city leader during the ferocious blaze that engulfed the Palisades.

In the midst of the whole fiasco-inferno, Vigliotti justifiably indicates former LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. Even before reading the book, I recognized that Crowley had encountered system failures: no water, not enough crew support, not enough funding, terrible communication networks, an absent mayor, and an unaware interim mayor. Yet in the face of such monstrous obstacles, Crowley and crew did their best to stop the fire and save lives. To his credit, Vigliotti also informs readers about her efforts and heroism to save lives and homes during the 2018 Woolsey fire. Then and now, Crowley displayed calm under fire (figuratively and literally).

In contrast to well-deserved vindication, Vigliotti targets Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass with the greatest condemnation. Without providing proper notice or notes to her team or executive departments, Bass traveled to the West African nation of Ghana for the celebrated inauguration of the country’s new president. She failed to appoint key emergency managers in her absence. The Deputy Mayor, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, didn’t inform LA leaders that he was acting mayor until late in the crisis. He didn’t even know Bass’s whereabouts!

Vigliotti traces in minute detail Bass’s out-of-touch fumbling, from incoherent social media to her distracting itinerary in Ghana, including attendance at official functions, and her perfunctory connection with city leaders when the Palisades fires erupted.

Despite his great reporting, there are two criticisms I must report. Vigliotti wants to spread the blame to all parties, including incoming President-elect Trump, as well as Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass. Included in his involved timeline of the fire’s escalation and destruction, he faults President(-elect) Trump with wanting to expedite recovery in the region. Such a reaction seems understandable for an incoming Commander-in-Chief. Trump has no role in the Palisades fires. And what about Biden? Vigliotti points out that President Biden and Governor Newsom cancelled a ceremony in the Palm Springs area before announcing the creation of two new monuments. Why? Inclement weather. Why didn’t Biden take more direct action, regardless of the local response? Bass deferred requesting support because she didn’t know the extent of what was happening.

As he accurately reports, Mayor Bass deserves the bulk of the blame for the Palisades disaster. Vigliotti details how she failed as chief executive, neglecting her crucial role of signaling, directing, and supervising all emergency resources to secure and safeguard the city. There’s no need or reason to implicate Trump.

Part of his title includes “the Rush to rebuild Olympic L.A.” Vigliotti stresses the danger of political haste from LA and California leaders to rebuild. That contentious subject diverts from the fire itself. Vigliotti should have expounded on the Olympics angle—with all of its political machinations—in another book. His reporting on the causes and outcomes of the worst fire in Los Angeles’ history was subject matter enough, and a wide-ranging account that will engage any reader.

On a different note, I appreciate his contrast between the massive failures of the public fire systems and the effective, efficient, and successful private firefighters employed by Rick Caruso. Whether intended or not, Vigliotti shows how free enterprise provides more effective relief in difficult times.

Vigliotti’s Torched provides on-the-ground and overarching reporting, giving the reader a broad array of viewpoints to understand what happened, why, and how the powers that be have not learned from Los Angeles’s latest failure, with hope that the next disaster doesn’t engulf more homes and lives.

Book cover

Image: Book cover.