As fires raged across LA, Mayor Karen Bass returned from Africa

In the first 24 hours of Los Angeles’ wildfire disaster, Mayor Karen Bass was a constant presence on social media, urging Angelenos to flee evacuation zones and announcing her decision to declare a state of emergency.

Meanwhile, Bass himself was far from town. When the flames tore through Pacific Palisades, she was on a diplomatic mission in Africa, communicating with key city agencies from a distance.

Bass left the city on Saturday as part of a presidential delegation to Ghana, just as the National Weather Service began raising its warnings about the coming wind storm. On Tuesday, she attended the inauguration of Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama and left City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson as LA’s acting mayor when the Palisades fire broke out.

When she returned to the United States, Bass faced some brutal assessments of the city’s handling of the fires. At one point she stood silent as a Sky News reporter peppered her with questions about her decision to go to Africa.

In one video of the confrontationBass mostly avoided eye contact as the reporter pressed her repeatedly on whether she needed to apologize to Angelenos for being in Africa and whether she regretted cutting the fire department’s budget.

“Madame Mayor, do you have absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today who are dealing with this disaster?” asked the reporter. Bass did not answer any of his questions.

As the Palisades Fire exploded in size Tuesday and new flames broke out in Sylmar and elsewhere, Harris-Dawson served as the city’s top elected official at news conferences. With Bass away from the cameras, real estate developer Rick Caruso — her opponent in the 2022 mayoral race — quickly swept in to fill the void, blasting the city’s handling of the disaster on multiple news outlets.

Caruso, whose daughter lost her home in the wildfires, expressed outrage at the lack of water pressure to attack the fire in Pacific Palisades. On Fox11, he sharply criticized Bass over her absence, saying “we’ve got a mayor who’s out of the country and we’ve got a city that’s on fire.”

“We have a mayor who seems to be more concerned about being at some party, no matter how the hell it is,” Caruso said in an interview with The Times. “We have terrible leadership that results in billions of dollars in damage because she wasn’t here and didn’t know what she was doing.”

Zach Seidl, a spokesman for Bass, did not immediately respond to the allegations. In earlier announcements, he said the mayor was in “active communication” with Harris-Dawson, Fire Chief Kristin Crowley and other officials while she was out of the country. Because she was on a military aircraft for a significant portion of her trip, she had access to phone service, he said.

Asked about the hydrants, Department of Water and Power officials said there had been “a huge demand” on the city’s water system, which had been pushed “to the limit.” The system received four times the typical demand for 15 straight hours, lowering overall water pressure, DWP Director General Janisse Quiñones said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

During the same briefing, Crowley, the fire chief, reported that Bass would return by noon Wednesday. Bass’ deputy chief of staff, Celine Cordero, said her boss had been “actively involved in decision-making” during the emergency.

“I want to assure the community and the city (that) our mayor has been actively engaged 100% of the time throughout the last 24 hours throughout this unfortunate, unfortunate event and crisis,” said Cordero, appearing before a bank of news cameras.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger backed those claims, saying she had been in regular communication with Bass about the emergency and was texting with her until 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“Believe me, she’s very committed. Very committed,” said Barger, whose district takes in the northern end of the county.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna was also unfazed by Bass’ absence, saying he has been in direct contact with the police chief, fire chief and other officials. He said he was sure Bass was trying to return as soon as possible.

“Although I may not see the mayor, I feel her presence,” Luna said.

The National Weather Service began warning of potentially strong winds — amid “extreme fire conditions” — Thursday, two days before Bass left for Ghana. These warnings intensified over the following days. On Monday, officials were ready for a potential life-threatening and destructive wind storm.

Eric Spiegelman, a Los Feliz resident who served for several years on the city’s board of taxi commissioners, said Bass should have booked an earlier flight home by Sunday after the National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch starting Tuesday in LA and Ventura counties citing “critical fire conditions.”

“She should have been here on Tuesday, period,” he said. “They kept upgrading the danger level.”

The first fire broke out in Pacific Palisades around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. About five hours later, Seidl told The Times that Bass was “on his way” from Ghana. During the following hours, wildfires broke out or spread to Altadena, Pasadena, Malibu, and Sylmar. Bass took a military plane to Washington, DC, then traveled commercially from there, Seidl said.

This isn’t the first time an LA mayor has been out of town during a major crisis. Mayor James K. Hahn was in Washington DC for several days in 2001 after the September 11 terrorist attacks. With planes grounded, then-City Council President Alex Padilla — now a U.S. senator — took steps to reassure the public about efforts to keep the city safe.

By mid-morning Wednesday, Bass and her team were still sending updates on the wildfires, reporting that helicopters were again dropping water on the flames in the Pacific Palisades. When President Biden received a briefing on the fires in Santa Monica, Crowley and Police Chief Jim McDonnell were there representing the city.

At 1 p.m., Bass was back in LAtouring Pacific Palisades with Gov. Gavin Newsom and Padilla, the U.S. senator.

“The impact of these fires and winds is devastating,” she said in a statement. “I just got off the phone with President Biden and discussed a quick path forward to recovery for the thousands of affected families.”

Times staff writers Grace Toohey and Liam Dillon contributed to this report.