Based on available information, it’s highly likely that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had access to warnings about high winds and fire risks before she flew to Ghana on January 4, 2025, though she has claimed otherwise.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a fire weather watch for Los Angeles on January 3, 2025, warning of "extreme fire weather conditions" due to strong Santa Ana winds and critically dry fuels, which was upgraded to a red flag warning by January 5.
These alerts were widely publicized. Local news outlets like the Los Angeles Times and official channels reported them, and posts on her own social media shared related weather alerts before her departure.
The NWS had been forecasting this "particularly dangerous situation" with long lead times, as noted by meteorologist Ariel Cohen, suggesting the risk was predictable and known days in advance.
Bass, however, stated in a February 18, 2025, Fox 11 interview that she wasn’t adequately warned by Fire Chief Kristin Crowley about the severity of the threat, saying, “That level of preparation didn’t happen. So it didn’t reach that level to me to say something terrible can happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip.”
She’s implied a communication failure, even suggesting an investigation into why she wasn’t informed, despite the public nature of the warnings.
Her office has maintained she was engaged remotely during the crisis, but she was briefed by the LAFD on January 6 about the extreme risk and still chose to stay in Ghana for the January 7 inauguration of President John Mahama, which she attended as part of a Biden administration delegation.
The NWS warnings were public, and her administration was aware enough to post updates, yet she pins the blame on Crowley. Multiple sources, like the LA Times, note the warnings intensified before she left.
@Grok
