Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass addressed her regret over her Ghana trip during the LA fires. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
"Well, I mean to be with honest with you. Well, I didn’t get briefed. That’s true. But I think that, again, people did not anticipate the historic wind. And it wasn’t just LA. It was the county too."
"What typically happens is that if there's going to be a big weather event, there are these briefings that happen and, uh, it's either initiated by the fire department or the emergency department," she said. "I was used to the fire chief calling me and telling me, you know, this is getting ready to happen. Come over. I need to brief you and all, you know, everything goes into motion. That didn't happen in the county, meaning LA and LA County."
On her flight back, she said she was on the phone almost the entire 12-hour flight back to the U.S. from Ghana.
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Pali High School rests across the street from homes destroyed in the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
"Yes, there were broken fire engines. We find out later that those fire engines were there broken because they're used for spare parts. But there were 40 fire engines that were idle because they didn't have the staff that [Crowley] sent home. And the budget cut and I don't I don't know the reasons for it, and then the budget cut that never happened," she added.
"Yes," Crowley notably responded in an interview at the time of the fires when asked if city leadership "failed" her when it came to resources.
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"What we did when we did the budget was we put money aside for fire because we were in labor negotiations. If the budget was signed before then, but when the labor negotiations were done, we put it back in the budget. Which is a common thing. We’re doing that right now," Bass said.
When asked about the after-action report for the fire, Bass said she would ‘look and see, but they should be about finished now."
Fox News Digital reached out to Bass' office and Crowley. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Los Angeles Fire Department, but they did not immediately comment.
Cameron Arcand is a politics writer at Fox News Digital in Washington D.C. Story tips can be sent to Cameron.Arcand@Fox.com and on Twitter: @cameron_arcand
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/los-angeles-mayor-bass-says-hell-yeah-she-regrets-ghana-trip-after-wildfires-ravaged-city