L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Gives Head-Scratching Excuse For Being In Ghana During Wildfires: ‘I Didn’t Know!’

Alessio AtriaFebruary 20, 2025, 11:27 pmNews >

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) gave an odd explanation for why she was in Ghana during the city’s wildfires. In early January, Bass faced criticism after it was revealed that she was in Ghana attending a presidential inauguration while wildfires broke out in the northern and western suburbs of Los Angeles.

During an interview with Fox 11 anchor Elex Michaelson, the L.A. mayor explained that she had been alerted about the wildfire warning as she flew to Ghana. “We need to look at everything about the preparation and all of that for the fires because I think when we evaluate that, we will find that although there are warnings – that I frankly wasn’t aware of – although there were warnings, I think our preparation – it wasn’t what it typically is,” she stated.

She then recalled an event that happened last week in which “we knew we were going to get into the rains. You saw us come together and us talk about, you know, getting your sandbags, bringing the K-rails out. That type of preparation didn’t happen.”

“If that had, I will tell you, Elex, I wouldn’t even have gone to San Diego, let alone leave the country,” Bass declared.

“But what do you mean there were warnings you weren’t aware of?” Michaelson asked. “Because I know we were talking about it on the news – a lot of people were talking about the problems, warning that this was going to be a huge deal.”

“So, when I talked about it with the fire chief, what she said is that we have warnings of Santa Ana winds a lot, but predicting this – and you saw, from the city, from the county, that level of preparation really didn’t happen,” she responded, referring to Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. “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.'”

“But to me, I don’t know,” the L.A. mayor admitted. “I mean, I think that’s one of the things we need to look at.”

“So two investigations are taking place,” Bass said. “One internal to the city, and that’s the fire commission because that’s mandated by the city charter. So the commission will hire an outside entity to examine everything – the pre-deployment, you know, why were staffs – why were firefighters at home – you know, all of that that should have taken place, but didn’t. And then also, the governor has contracted with the Fire Safety Research Institute, which is a national institute that investigated what happened in the fires in Maui. So everything that happened – including that – needs to be examined.”

“I will tell you that I felt absolutely terrible not being here for my city and not being here for my family, who was impacted by the fires as well,” she confessed. “And so when I say it was a mistake, absolutely, the idea that I was not present was very painful.”

Crowley said that Bass “had failed the city” in her response to the fire.