By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-15 00:42:03 | Updated at 2025-01-18 13:19:35
3 days ago
Embattled Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass is facing new calls to resign or lose her job after swatting away questions about whether she regrets traveling overseas in spite of extreme weather warnings.
Bass was in Ghana on a diplomatic trip last week, when the first fire broke out in the ritzy celebrity enclave of Pacific Palisades and spread rapidly up to Malibu and down toward Santa Monica.
A second enormous fire broke out inland near Pasadena hours later, and both are still raging a week on - costing at least 24 lives, razing an estimated 12,300 structures and wiping out 40,000 acres of land.
Upwards of 200,000 residents have been subject to evacuation orders and thousands are still trapped in shelters, unable to return home as authorities begin the arduous task of searching the ash and debris for human remains.
It quickly emerged that Bass was aware of the increased weather risk ahead of traveling overseas. Forecasters had been sounding the alarm since Thursday about a 'recipe for fire' - two days before she departed.
Asked on Tuesday whether she 'would have taken that trip overseas' in hindsight, Bass stumbled over an answer before dismissively conceding, 'no.'
'You know, I am going to focus today-'
As she delivered her response avoiding the question, the CBS journalist interrupted, asking: 'But please-'
'No,' she said sharply, before turning around and walking away from cameras as journalists scrambled to ask more questions.
Hibbs also directed his anger at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who was on a trip to Ghana when the fires broke out
Mandatory evacuation orders were put in place on Tuesday as the fast-moving fire rapidly approached
Bass was in Ghana on a diplomatic trip on Tuesday, when the first fire broke out in the ritzy celebrity enclave of Pacific Palisades (pictured) and spread rapidly up to Malibu and down toward Santa Monica
The criticism Bass has faced goes beyond the decisions she made as the fire threat loomed.
Her administration has made decisions over the years which have left emergency services chronically underfunded.
LA's fire chief Kristin Crowley told CNN: 'Over the last 3 years, we have been clear that the fire department needs help.'
She added that she has emphasized how 'understaffed, under-resourced, and underfunded the LAFD is', adding: 'I rang the bell that these additional cuts could be very very devastating for our ability to provide public safety.'
Bass slashed the LA Fire Department's budget by $17.6million in 2024 after being talked down from $23million in cuts, and officials ignored warnings about the threat of infernos.
Following her latest response, voters are demanding she be 'recalled.'
'Recall this woman,' one person wrote on X.
'While Karen Bass was in Ghana, LA was burning—her level of incompetence puts her unfit to lead; she should resign,' another added.
Altadena was reduced to rubble in the Eaton fire
Search and rescue workers dig through the rubble left behind by the Eaton Fire
Others described her as 'grossly incompetent' and 'totally out of touch with the people of LA.'
Bass promised when she was elected that she would not travel overseas during her term, telling the New York Times: 'Not only would I of course live here, but I also would not travel internationally.
'The only places I would go would be D.C., Sacramento, San Francisco and New York, in relation to L.A.'
It comes after scores of A-listers, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sarah Foster, Dennis Quad and James Woods, took to social media to shame the LA mayor's response to the infernos that have been spreading since Tuesday.
Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote on Instagram: 'City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping'.
Khloe Kardashian said she 'stood behind' fire chief Crowley and dubbed Mayor Bass a 'joke.'
Meanwhile, other furious celebrities have critiques the mayor's moves, with actress Sara Foster writing on X: 'We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish.
'Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits. RESIGN. Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.'
A firefighter sprays water on a home burning in the Eaton Fire in Altadena
The Democrat, 57, has faced calls to resign for the devastating and incompetent response to the LA wildfires
Actor James Woods, who was forced to evacuate the inferno, also blasted the mayor, blaming her and California Governor Gavin Newsom for the fire.
'This fire is not from 'climate change.' It's because liberal idiots like you elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass. One doesn't understand the first thing about fire management and the other can't fill the water reservoirs', he wrote.
In less than a week, four fires around the nation's second-biggest city have scorched more than 40,000 acres, roughly three times the size of Manhattan.
The National Weather Service warned the weather will be 'particularly dangerous' on Tuesday, when wind gusts could reach 65mph.
Huge swathes of Southern California is under this extreme fire danger warning through Wednesday, including densely populated Thousand Oaks, Northridge and Simi Valley.
Two fires continue to burn largely uncontained as:
- The 'looters, burglars and drug addicts' arrested during fires are pictured
- Eerie crime scene photo shows 'exact spot' where Pacific Palisades fire started
- Authorities reveal they've replaced the term 'fire season' with 'fire year'
The sheer scale of the devastation is unprecedented, with prime real estate stretching from Malibu to the Palisades and down to Santa Monica wiped off the map.
Miles Teller, Mel Gibson and Paris Hilton are among A-list celebrities who lost their homes in the inferno.
The death toll is expected to grow as cadaver dogs gain access to the smoldering wreckages of entire neighborhoods which simply 'no longer exist'
The Palisades fire remains just 17 per cent contained, having burned through 23,713 acres. So far, eight bodies have been found in the wreckage.
The Eaton fire, which has wiped out large swathes of Pasadena and Altadena, has burned through less land than the Palisades fire, but the human cost is far greater.
Already, 16 bodies have been found in the carnage. Some 7,000 structures are estimated to be gone, but the process of examining what remains is slow going.
Mandy Moore's home was among those charred beyond recognition in the Eaton fire, which spans 14,117 acres.
It is just 35 per cent contained.
The death toll is likely to rise, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Monday. At least two dozen people have been reported missing, he said.
Luna said he understands that people are eager to return to their homes and neighborhoods to survey the damage, but he asked for their patience. 'We have people literally looking for the remains of your neighbors,' he said.
He hit out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, pictured second from right, for laughing at one of the command centers
Bass is not the only Los Angeles official under intense scrutiny.
More than 100,000 people signed a petition calling on Governor Newsom to resign from his position.
He has made a concerted effort to shift blame onto other officials, including Bass, and maintained he didn't know how the wildfires happened.
Most recently, Newsom was slammed for trying to draw in donations for the victims through his own Super PAC.
