One year later, 'Firestorm' investigates the systems that failed during the LA Fires

"On New Year's Eve 2024, journalist Jacob Soboroff was sitting around a campfire with a friend when he made an offhand comment that would come back to haunt him: The last thing he wanted to do in the new year, Soboroff said, was cover a story that would require donning a fire-safe yellow suit. Just one week later, Soboroff was dressed in the yellow suit, reporting live from a street corner in Los Angeles as fire tore through the Pacific Palisades, the community where he was raised."

""This was a place that I could navigate with my eyes closed," Soboroff says of the neighborhood. "Every hallmark of my childhood I was watching carbonize in front of me. There were firefighters there and first responders and other journalists there, but it was an extremely lonely isolating experience to be standing there as everything I knew burned down around me in real time.""

"The Palisades and Eaton fires burned out of control for days, destroying more than 16,000 structures and killing at least 31 people. At the time, then President-elect Trump falsely blamed the city of Los Angeles for not having enough water to fight the blazes. "The misinformation and disinformation that was coming from the president-elect and the people around him made fighting these fires, if not more specifically difficult in real time, more traumatic for the people that were searching for answers," Soboroff says."

On New Year's Eve 2024 a journalist offhandedly said he did not want to cover a story requiring a fire-safe yellow suit; one week later he reported wearing that suit as fire tore through Pacific Palisades, his childhood community. The Palisades and Eaton fires burned uncontrollably for days, destroying more than 16,000 structures and killing at least 31 people. Then President-elect Trump falsely blamed Los Angeles for lacking water, and misinformation intensified trauma and complicated emergency response. The reporter described watching childhood landmarks carbonize, feeling isolated despite the presence of firefighters, first responders, and fellow journalists. The experience underscored reverence for local news colleagues and the human toll of disaster.

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