Mayor Bass facing blowback over explosive report that she altered wildfire report to downplay city's role
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is under fire this week after a Los Angeles Times report claiming she successfully altered in her favor a critical after-action report on the devastating southern California wildfires that killed 31 people.
While Bass has repeatedly denied that she interfered with the report, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing two sources, that Bass was concerned about the city could be exposed to legal liabilities for its lack of preparedness and removed or softened language implicating the city.
One of the key changes, according to the Los Angeles Times, was altering details about failures to fully staff and deploy resources leading up to the fire, an issue that has drawn intense scrutiny over the past year.
The report cites a "Bass confidant" who said "the mayor didn’t tell the truth when she said she had nothing to do with changing the report."
Bass, who has also drawn criticism for flying to Africa for an event days before the fire broke out despite hazardous conditions in the forecast and warnings about fire risks, has denied the accuracy of the reporting.
Still, widespread outrage has resulted both on social media and from politicians.
"There’s no moving forward until we get the answers and the people that are responsible are fired, and that includes the fire chiefs, the fire battalion chiefs, that includes the mayor, it includes anybody that had anything to do with this," reality TV star Spencer Pratt, running for mayor of Los Angeles, told Fox Los Angeles while standing next to the burnt remains of his Palisades home that was destroyed in the fire.
Businessman Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Bass is said to be mulling another run, called the report an "outrage" and that Bass "actively covered up a report meant to examine the most significant disaster in Los Angeles history."
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More than a year after a series of the most expensive and devastating wildfires tore through the Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of Los Angeles, survivors are still stuck in limbo as red tape, rising costs and stalled aid slow recovery. California’s strict rebuilding regulations, combined with the scale of the devastation, help explain why rebuilding has barely begun.
Additionally, questions remain about the city's response to the fire as local leaders face criticism for empty fire hydrants, an empty reservoir, slow response times, inadequate brush clearance and maintenance, and a botched PR response in the days following the fire.
The Eaton and Palisades fires, in addition to taking the lives of 31 residents, scorched a combined 37,728 acres, an area larger than California's Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios combined, destroying more than 16,200 buildings in their path.
"Mayor Bass has been unequivocal for months — she reviewed an early draft of the report and only asked the LAFD to make sure it was accurate on issues like weather and budget," the mayor’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"She and her staff made no changes to the drafts. The Mayor has been clear about her concerns regarding pre-deployment and the LAFD’s response to the fire, which is why there is new leadership at LAFD and why she called for an independent review of the Lachman Fire mop-up. There is absolutely no reason why she would request those details be altered or erased when she herself has been critical of the response to the fire – full stop. She has said this for months. This is muckraking journalism at its lowest form. It is dangerous and irresponsible for Los Angeles Times reporters to rely on third hand unsourced information to make unsubstantiated character attacks to advance a narrative that is false."
Fox News Digital's Amanda Macias contributed to this report.