LA Fire Dept. Calls Out LA Mayor Karen Bass For Lying Again Over Wildfire Knowledge

The Los Angeles Fire Department refuted a recent statement by Bass on Wednesday, saying that she did indeed have prior knowledge of how bad the Santa Ana winds were going to be before leaving for Africa right before the January wildfires began.

Since January 7th, Bass has received scorching criticism for her handling of the wildfire emergency, leading many to call for her resignation. Amongst Bass’ many criticisms tied to the fires includes her cutting $17.5 million from the LAFD in the 2024-2025 city budget, deciding to travel abroad in January despite knowing that a major emergency could happen with high speed winds expected, giving a minimal response to the fires on the first day, refusing to answer press questions, having promised to never travel abroad as Mayor yet doing it anyway, and showing an overall general mismanagement of the fires once she returned to L.A.

In recent weeks she was also outclassed by President Donald Trump at a roundtable press meeting, has seen record low approval ratings, and has admitted that going on the African trip last month was a mistake in the first place. In addition, recall efforts are currently being built against her as an overall result.

However, Bass has continued to show a disturbing trend of denying something negative tied to the wildfires, only for her to be refuted with proof. She at first tried to deny that she cut any funds from the LAFD, but this was swiftly proven false when it was shown that she axed $17 million from their budget before the fires. Bass then tried to claim that the money she cut had nothing to do with the response by fire crews, only for the LAFD fire chief to say in a press conference that, yes, the cuts did “impact our ability to provide service” during the wildfires. In addition, she tried to claim that she returned to LA as fast as she could once she learned of the fires, only for it to be revealed that she stopped off at a cocktail party on the way to the airport.

On Wednesday Bass then struck again trying to shed off some blame, only to be refuted. Heading into this week, it was widely acknowledged that Bass knew of the strong winds and the huge risk of a devastating wildfire, yet decided to go to Ghana anyway.

But on Tuesday during an NBC interview, Bass said otherwise.

“It didn’t reach that level to me to say something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t go on the trip,” said Mayor Bass. “That type of preparation didn’t happen. If that had, I will tell you, I wouldn’t even have gone to San Diego let alone leave the country. From the city, from the county, that level of preparation didn’t happen. So it didn’t reach that level to me, to say, ‘Something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip.’”

That response baffled many, as it contradicted numerous reports, as did a later announcement by the Mayor’s office trying to say that LAFD Fire Chief Kristen Crowley was to blame for not alerting her earlier.

“Before other major weather emergencies, the mayor, or at minimum, the mayor’s chief of staff, has received a direct call from the fire chief, flagging the severity of the situation. This time, that call never came,” noted Bass spokesman Zach Seidl.

The LAFD, used to correcting Bass on some of her backtracking statements by now, set the record straight on Wednesday saying that she was well aware of the huge wildfire risks before leaving and left anyway.

“Prior to the Palisades Fire, the LAFD emailed two separate media advisories, conducted multiple live and recorded media interviews about the predicted extreme fire weather, and notified City Officials about the upcoming weather event,” the LAFD said.

Bass and the LAFD

The response on Wednesday and Thursday has been largely against Bass for once again trying to lie to the public.

“She keeps trying to blame others,” said former lobbyist Harry Schultz to the Globe on Thursday. “To be fair to her, she isn’t totally to blame. The area was dry, winds had been high. And, even if they had been the most prepared, the fires would have happened anyway. It’s just a question how much worse they became with the decisions made.

“Some of her decisions have definitely shown this, but on an image level, she also wasn’t there for the city during it’s greatest time of need. She knew the huge risk of a fire and went anyway. She knew wildfire risk was high, yet slashed the LAFD budget. She tried to mitigate some of this in that interview this week, but only made it worse.

“Is it any wonder that so many people still want her to resign or that a recall effort is starting to form against her? Everyone is just tired of her deflecting blame, trying to say that she did nothing wrong. She did. If she admitted to her mistakes early on, well, it wouldn’t be good but she would have been in a much better place than now.

“The LAFD remark just adds onto the growing baggage on her. If she decides to run again next year, she is going to be nailed on wildfire issues thanks to all this. And any hope for higher office or a sweet international post after the Trump administration is rapidly going away too. She got herself into this. She needs to stop trying to be the victim when there are tens of thousands of actual victims out there.”