Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is blaming L.A. Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kirsten Crowley — again — for they city’s failure to prepare adequately for the extreme winds that spread the Palisades Fire on January 7.
As Breitbart News has reported, Bass was overseas when the fire began, and the LAFD failed to pre-deploy engines and firefighters ahead of the anticipated extreme winds. That decision, apparently, was taken because Bass and the City Council cut the firefighting budget, leaving Crowley reluctant to pay for overtime for pre-deployed firefighters.
In her first formal interview since the fire, Bass sat down with Elex Michaelson of local FOX affiliate KTTV-11. They had the following exchange:
"I feel absolutely terrible not being here for my city!"
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) February 19, 2025
I ask @MayorOfLA @KarenBassLA about her decision to travel to Ghana with dangerous winds forecast for L.A.
"The idea I was not present is very painful."
She says Fire Chief Kristin Crowley did not give her adequate… pic.twitter.com/I7EwiuFGrY
BASS: I felt absolutely terrible not being here for my city.
MICHAELSON: L.A. Mayor Karen Bass gives us her first sit-down TV interview since the Palisades Fire began, and opens up about traveling on a diplomatic mission to Ghana with dangerous winds in L.A.’s forecast.
BASS: When I say it was a mistake — absolutely. The idea that I was not present was very painful.
MICHAELSON: We know that there was warnings about the weather before you went, and you still went. What was the thought process behind going to Ghana?
BASS: When the White House called and asked me if I would represent the president, I said yes, it was going to be a very, very short trip over a weekend and two business days.
MICHAELSON: The mayor says L.A. fire chief Kristen Crowley did not call her to warn her in advance of the trip and didn’t do the, quote, normal preparations for this kind of wind event.
BASS: That type of preparation didn’t happen. If that had — I will tell you, Elex, I wouldn’t have even gone to San Diego, let alone leave the country.
MICHAELSON: But what do you mean? There were warnings you weren’t aware of? 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 huge.
BASS: It didn’t reach that level to me to say something terrible could happen.
Bass and Crowley fought in public in the aftermath of the fire in January before setting aside their feud — which Bass has now re-ignited.
Thousands of Palisades residents remain displaced, with many still living in temporary residences and suffering financial hardship.
As Michaelson noted, there are two investigations into the fire — one by the Los Angeles Fire Commission, and another by the Fire Safety Research Institute.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
