REPORT: Emails show LA Mayor Karen Bass’ office knew about wildfire warnings

Since the outbreak of the wildfires, LA Mayor Karen Bass has been getting criticized on several different fronts.

In addition to being out of town, there were questions about events leading up to the fires, including if she had been warned about them. While Bass had denied she had been warned, emails have been revealed that tell a much different story in terms of what her office had been told. 

Timeline of the fires

Both the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted on January 7, 2025. The fires spread quickly due to drought conditions and shockingly strong winds at the time. Around 8:00 a.m. that morning, Chief Crowley ordered the pre-deployment of teams based on red-flag conditions. The first fire started just after 10 a.m., with the second fire in Eaton starting just after 6 p.m. Just before 6:30 p.m., Crowley ordered all firefighters to report for duty.

Mayor Bass was in Africa at the time the fires broke out, not returning until the following day. Crowley was also under fire for a delayed response to the fires.

Within the first 72 hours, the fires had spread to nearly 20,000 acres in Palisades and nearly 14,000 acres in Eaton. The fires were reportedly at more than 90% contained by January 27, with a reported death toll of 29 people to that date.

Bass says she was unaware

When Bass ran for office, she promised not to travel internationally, and she stated that all domestic travel would be related to her office if she won the election. She clearly violated that promise by traveling to Africa right before the fires broke out.

In trying to justify the timing of her trip, Bass claimed that she was not made aware of the red-flag conditions, stating, “We need to look at everything about the preparation and all of that for the fires . . . I think when we evaluate that, we will find that although there were warnings, that I frankly wasn’t aware of.”

Mind you, the weather service had issued several warnings, and the Fire Chief had pre-deployed firefighters in the expected hotspots. Not to mention, most weather apps on our phones give these warnings to everyone, so there is little reason to believe Bass.

Reports later surfaced that Chief Crowley had warned Bass about budget cuts that would hamper her ability for the department to have a large-scale response, as would be needed in the case of a fire. Crowley was eventually fired by Bass.

Emails say differently

So, we all pretty much knew that Bass was lying about the warnings, but now there is a paper trail to back it up. Regarding warnings, Bass claimed, “It didn’t reach that level to me, that something terrible could happen, and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip.”

The LA Times has obtained numerous emails from the LA Emergency Management Department that were received by Bass’ office warning of “damaging winds and elevated fire conditions occurring next week” on January 3. Bass left for Ghana on January 4.

For some reason, Bass’ staff reportedly chose not to share those warnings with her. Deputy Mayor Zach Seidl has confirmed he saw the emails, but did not share them because of the word “tentative” that was used in the warning. He stated that because of that word, he believed the warnings were not too serious and never told Bass. While I cannot prove it, I think this is Seidl deflecting blame and falling on his sword to protect Bass.

Seidl then pushed the blame to the Fire Chief, stating, “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.”

That still does not excuse Bass, who, had she been in town, would likely have been at the meeting where EDM official warned, “This windstorm event has the potential to produce life-threatening and destructive wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph.” That meeting took place on January 6, when Bass was already in Ghana at a wedding celebration. This is negligence, pure and simple, and if the people of LA elect this woman to office again, they deserve every bit of ill fortune that happens due to her incompetence.