Karen Bass apologizes for Palisades Fire during LA mayor debate

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass expressed regret for being away from her city during the massive January 2025 wildfires in Southern California, apologizing to voters for her absence while debating her mayoral race opponent Tuesday night.

“Let me just say that I am so profoundly sorry that I was not in my city when my city needed me,” Bass said during the debate, which was moderated by NBC4 Los Angeles and Telemundo 52. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of the lives lost, the families that lost their homes, or the families where the home is still standing but they’re not able to be in it.”

Bass was reportedly on her way back to Los Angeles after she was part of a U.S. delegation to Accra, Ghana, for the inauguration of Ghanaian President John Mahama. Los Angeles’s Emergency Management Department reportedly warned the mayor’s aides about the fire risk ahead of her trip, according to the Los Angeles Times .

Bass’s challenger, City Council member Nithya Raman, accused the incumbent of being “missing in action” during the January 2025 fires, as well as another this June. The absences prompted “a crisis of trust” toward City Hall, she said.

“The question that I heard over and over … across the entire city was, ‘Where is our mayor? Where is our mayor?'” Raman said. “If there is another emergency, you will not have to ask — if I am mayor — where our mayor is. I will be on the front lines.”

Frustration with Bass’s handling of the fires drove many voters to support former reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the primary. Pratt lost his home in the Palisades Fire.

Bass has pushed back on criticism of her handling of the Palisades Fire and the corresponding Eaton Fire. Pratt emphasized Bass’s role during the fires as part of his campaign, and polling from the University of California, Berkeley, released last month showed 56 percent of Angelenos thought Bass did a “poor” or “very poor” job responding to the devastation.

That same poll showed Raman leading Bass 39 percent to 28 percent, with 33 percent of likely voters still undecided.

Both fires burned more than 38,000 acres and destroyed more than 16,000 structures across Southern California, according to the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

The fires killed 31 people, making it the second-deadliest wildfire in California history behind the 2018 Camp fire, which had a death toll of 85, KTLA reported in January.

Former President Biden was temporarily stuck in Los Angeles because of the fires ahead of a trip to the Coachella Valley to designate a new monument, CNN and local independent outlet L.A. Taco reported at the time. The fires altered his plans, and he received a briefing from Santa Monica officials before flying to Washington later in the day.