Firestorm

The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster

By: Jacob Soboroff

Narrated by: Jacob Soboroff

Narrated by the author: Experience the Southern California wildfires through Jacob Soboroff’s eyes—and voice.

New York Times Bestseller and #1 Los Angeles Times Bestseller

A "gripping, unshakeable firsthand account" (San Francisco Chronicle) of the firestorm that consumed Los Angeles, from the MS NOW reporter and New York Times bestselling author of Separated, who covered the fires on the ground as an LA native.

"Read[s] like a sci-fi thriller.” —Los Angeles Times

On the morning of January 7, 2025, a message pinged the phone of Jacob Soboroff, a national reporter for MS NOW. “Big Palisades fire. We are evacuating,” his brother texted within minutes of the blaze engulfing the hillside behind the home where he and his pregnant wife were living. “Really bad.” An attached photo showed a huge black plume rising from behind the house, an umbrella of smoke towering over everything they owned. Jacob rushed to the office of the bureau chief.

“I should go. I grew up in the Palisades.”

Soon he was on the front line of the blaze—his first live report of what would turn out to be weeks covering unimaginable destruction, from both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, in Altadena. In the days to come, Soboroff appeared across the networks of NBC News as Los Angeles was ablaze, met with displaced residents and workers, and pressed Governor Gavin Newsom in an interview on Meet the Press. But no story Soboroff has covered at home or abroad—the trauma of family separation at the border, the displacement of the war in Ukraine, the collapse of order in Haiti—could have prepared him for reporting live as the hallmarks of his childhood were engulfed in flames around him while his hometown burned to the ground.

But for Soboroff, questions remained after the fires were controlled: what had he just witnessed? How could it have happened? Is it inevitable something like it will happen again? This set Soboroff off on months of reporting—with firefighters, fire victims, political leaders, academics, earth scientists, wildlife biologists, meteorologists and more—that made him keenly aware of how the misfortune of seeing his past carbonize was also a form of time travel into the dystopian world his children will inhabit. This is because the 2025 LA fires were not an isolated tragedy, but rather they are a harbinger—"the fire of the future," in the words of one senior emergency—management official.

Firestorm is the story of the costliest wildfire in American history, the people it affected and the deeply personal connection to one journalist covering it. It is a love letter to Los Angeles, a yearning to understand the fires, and why America’s new age of disaster we are living through portends that—without a reckoning of how Los Angeles burned—there is more yet, and worse, to come.

Powerful Journalism With a Human Core

Jacob Soboroff’s “Firestorm” is a powerful, exceptionally well-written book that combines firsthand experience, interviews, and thorough reporting into a clear and deeply human account of the events it covers. Soboroff balances facts with personal stories in a way that makes the narrative compelling without ever feeling sensationalized. It’s informative, unsettling, and hard to put down.

Perhaps most striking is the uncomfortable truth at the heart of the book: the people who most need to read it are, sadly, likely the ones who will enjoy it least. That tension is exactly what makes Firestorm so important. A thoughtful, sobering, and necessary read, especially in audio format, where the impact really lands.

The mixture of fact and emotion

I lived in Topanga Canyon for 11 years including the 1992 wildfire that swept through my mountain community. There was loss of life and a friend who was severely burned. His life was altered forever.
Mr. Soboroff vividly and accurately told the story of living through a natural disaster of this nature. The terror and sadness that accompany it are difficult to imagine but this book does it beautifully.

Clear accounting

The writer wrote about and then told this tragedy in a very clear and understandable way. His personal background put the author in a unique position to tell the story.

The sheer reality of the fires! Jacob is not only great to watch, but an excellent writer and storyteller.

Everything! Felt like I was reliving the fires. Very descriptive and well wtitten. I look forward to Jacob's next book.

Excellent Journalism

Jacob Soboroff was able to blend his own experiences with those of dozens of others to provide a most comprehensive account of the tragic fire events of January, 2025. He put the same energy and compassion into this book as he does to all his on-air reporting. The audio book in the author's own voice adds to the experience.