Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reportedly directed changes to the Palisades Fire after-action report that were watered down to protect top officials, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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Sources told the outlet that Bass was worried the original draft could expose the city to lawsuits and wanted key findings softened or removed.
Those findings blamed the Fire Department for not fully staffing up and not pre-deploying engines before extreme winds.
The Lachman Fire, which the department failed to fully extinguish before it flared into the Palisades Fire, was barely mentioned.
Bass has repeatedly denied any role in changing the report. Her office says firefighters wrote and edited it themselves.
Mayor Bass's office sent the following statement to KNX News:
“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. 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.”
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