Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass again found himself at the center of controversy, desperately trying to explain her absence during the forest fires that destroyed her city.
While the deadly Palisades started to burn, Bass was traveling to Ghana who represented the Biden administration.
Standing firm that she was not aware of the fire risks when she left to go abroad, the mayor doubled on Wednesday and assured reporters again that she came home as quickly as possible.
“You get time to come back, but I will tell you that it is not like there are hour flights from Accra, Ghana to the United States,” Bass said.
Despite her comments, the mayor received hard recoil when she was depicted at a cocktail party at the American embassy while forest fires started to destroy the Pacific Palisades.
Bass, who recently dismissed Chief Kristin Crowley about her response to the forest fires, said earlier that nobody brought her about the fire risks and found that if she had known, she would not have gone on the journey.
“We have to look at everything about the preparation and all that for the fires … I think when we evaluate that, we will notice that although there were warnings – that I honestly didn't know.”
'I think our preparation was not what it is usually … That level of preparation really didn't happen. If it had done that, I wouldn't even have gone to San Diego, let it leave the country, “she said in an interview.
Mayor Karen Bass spoke to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday to discuss the reconstruction LA, but she was peppered with questions about firing Lafd -Chef
Kristin Crowley, chef of Los Angeles Fire Department
Houses burned on the ground after the Eaton fire in Altadena
The mayor was absent for more than a day, while her city was fighting forest fires. She finally returned via military transport.
Bass' derivation of attention away from her Ghana trip and the lack of preparation of De Lafd was apparently a shot in the newly deposited Crowley.
The mayor was also asked to tackle the dismissal and her public feud with the former fire brigade commander.
Although the press conference was intended to tackle the reconstruction of the city, the controversy around her relationship with Crowley was given a precedent.
Bass had previously defended her decision to dismiss Crowley and claimed that there were 40 unused fire trucks on the day the Palisades fire broke out because 1,000 firefighters were sent home earlier in the day.
She doubled the claim during the press conference and told reporters that trade union representatives said that the firefighters were sent home due to a lack of fire trucks was 'incorrect'.
“There are fire trucks that need to be repaired, the fire brigade needs mechanics, there is no doubt about that,” she said.
“Only 1,000 firefighters – Many of those firefighters could have been on the 40 fire trucks.”
La Mayor Karen Bass was depicted mixed during a cocktail party at the American embassy when the fires first broke out
The Pacific Palisades were delivered in flames at the beginning of January, while forest fires destroyed Los Angeles
Residents of Los Angeles evacuated their houses while firefighters tried to eliminate the unprecedented forest fires
Civil servants of Los Angeles have been examined for the devastating forest fires who killed at least 28 people and demolished more than 19,000 houses in the city.
Authorities continued to play the debt game, in which Bass Crowley accused of not properly staffing the disaster, while LA's United Firefighters struck that the unused fire trucks had no working engines.
Bass called the unused fire trucks as Crowley's reason for dismissal, writing in a destructive explanation, “acting in the best interest of the public safety of Los Angeles, and for the activities of the Los Angeles fire brigade, I removed Kristin Crowley as a fire brigade commander.”
'We know that 1,000 firefighters who could have served in the morning, broke out the fires, were sent home instead on Chief Crowley's Watch.
“Moreover, a necessary step towards an investigation was the president of the fire committee who told Chief Crowley to make a naaction report about the fires. The chef refused. These require her removal. '
Crowley broke her silence the next day and said it was an “absolute honor” to represent the Lafd, but did not speak to Bas or the controversy.
Since its removal, firefighters have gathered around Crowley, with many who claim that the move was to get the heat from Bas.
'It's very simple, Crowley was afraid of being blamed, so she threw Bass under the bus. Then Bas took revenge on her and Crowley threw under the bus, “an experienced firefighter previously told the DailyMail.com.
President of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City repeated a similar belief and claimed that Crowley was: “A scapegoat to distract from the failure of the city and complete neglect of the fire brigade.”
Entire neighborhoods in the Pacific Palisades were completely destroyed after forest fires at the start of the year
'We do not have enough firefighters, not enough working rigs, broken brand hydrants and a water supply that was dry, but Chief Crowley is the one who is terminated? It is not logical. '
The back and forth between Bas and Crowley began for the forest fires that the city destroyed when the former fire commander accused the city of cutting their budget.
Bass approved budget reductions of $ 17.6 million in December, so Crowley would write to her a memo that warned that the cutbacks would be, “the capacity of the department to prepare, train and respond to large -scale emergency situations, including forest fires, seriously limited.”
DailyMail.com previously revealed a second memo written the day before the fires that claim further cuts on an amount of $ 49 million.
Crowley was pronounced about how the cutbacks influenced the Lafd and often proclaimed the mayor's office publicly for under -financing of the department.
Although they both claimed to work together amicably, the public gap was unmistakable.
A drone photo recorded the level of destruction after the Eaton -fire ruined the neighborhood of Altadena
Aircraft were used to drop water on the forest fires in an attempt to stop them
Tensions came over when Bass reportedly marched to the crowley office with two lawyers to give her the news, a source told DailyMail.com earlier.
The source added that Bass told Crowley that their relationship was 'not training' and that the meeting lasted only a few minutes.
Another point of discussion in the wrong acting of the natural fire crisis was then acting mayor Marqueece Harris-Dawson postponed to declare a state of emergency for hours in the destruction.
“It is not as if the emergency declaration had the efforts to beat the fires,” Bass told reporters on Wednesday to defend Harris-Dawson.
The Public Fallout between Crowley and Bass has influenced the relationship of the mayor with the Firefighters Union, because firefighters apparently have been relocated behind their own.
Bass' Trouw will also be put to the test in the upcoming budget process, including financing to De Lafd.
