TV Reporter Describes ‘Cataclysmic' Scene as Wildfires Torch L.A., Including His Childhood Home (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

For NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff, reporting from the devastation in the Pacific Palisades amidthe raging wildfiresaround Los Angeles is not just a job — it’s also painfully personal because it’s where he grew up.

“It’s a really awful situation,” he tells PEOPLE in an interview one day after the fire erupted in the L.A. neighborhood, now one of seven blazes burning through parts of the area as strong winds and other conditionsfan the flames.

“I was born and raised here," Soboroff, 41, says, “and it’s really devastating to see.”

Five people have been confirmed dead so far, according to the Associated Press.

Soboroff,who has been delivering reports from the Palisades for NBC— onToday,NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,on NBCNews.com — describes the scenes he’s witnessed as “cataclysmic.”

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“The idea that the entire [neighborhood] could be destroyed as we know it within 24 hours is really a remarkable thing,” he says. “As I’m talking to you now, I’m watching another structure go up in flames. This has been going on for 24 hours — and it shows no signs of letting up.”

NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff reporting from wildfires in Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.NBC News

NBC News

Soboroff remembers the neighborhood pre-fire as a small town in a big city: “a patchwork of different communities.”

“There are families who lived here for generations and there are lots of young, new families who’ve moved in and worked there. It’s a very special place,” he says. “You can live a life where you can walk into the village and walk into the grocery stores or the pharmacy or the library.”

He hasn’t been back to his old childhood home in many years. But when he did, for his reporting on Wednesday afternoon, Soboroff found it had burned down.

He spoke with one fire official who told him the blaze has been the most devastating the official had ever seen in California.

“Until the winds let up, this is gonna keep going,” says Soboroff. “The idea of these hurricane force wind gusts in Los Angeles is not something a lot of us are used to, especially when fires are raging like this.“

Soboroff says he’s previously covered conflict areas in his job, but the Palisades fire has been a different kind of story for him.

“Imagine the place where you grew up disintegrating overnight,” he says. “That’s what happened here … It’s very personal for me, too.”

“I just hope,” he adds, “that it bounc[ing] back takes months. Not years.”

Click hereto learn more about how to help the victims of the L.A. fires.

source: people.com