A city rises again from the ashes – but will it be strong enough?

CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti spent countless days and nights covering the terrible California fires last year. His new book, "Torched: How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A." (to be published May 12 by Atria/One Signal), recounts that harrowing experience. This morning, he shares some thoughts: You probably remember the story of The Three Little Pigs. Three houses, built three ways (of straw, sticks, and bricks), and a big bad wolf, huffing and puffing, testing each one. That story played out in real life last year in Los Angeles. One Signal/Atria Books The wolf – in this case, extreme wind and fire fueled by climate change – leveled most of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Just like in the fairy tale, not all the homes were created equal. L.A.'s "straw" homes – older wood homes built before modern fire codes – made up many of the losses. The city's "stick" homes were built to code and fared better, but code still allows wood construction, and many still burned. Far fewer homes were built like the third pig's house, the "brick" one. Those were homes that exceeded code. Many survived. Now, Los Angeles is rushing to rebuild ahead of the 2028 Olympics, what Governor Newsom once called the "Recovery Games." A cleanup and permit process that typically takes a year has been compressed into months. To be fair, "fast" isn't always the enemy of "good," but shortcuts almost always are. …