LA Mayor Karen Bass says sheβs investigating why she was allowed to go on a trip to Ghana days before the LA fires.
https://t.co/aNE2pF8tTd
Video Transcript AI Summary
I agreed to represent the President on a short trip to Ghana when the White House called. In hindsight, it was a mistake to go. There were warnings about the weather, but I wasn't aware of them. The typical preparations, like sandbags and K-rails, didn't happen. Had they occurred, I wouldn't have gone anywhere.
The fire chief said they get many Santa Ana wind warnings, but predicting this level of disaster didn't happen. Two investigations are underway: one internal by the city's Fire Commission and another by the Fire Safety Research Institute, which investigated the Maui fires. They'll examine everything, including pre-deployment and staffing decisions. I felt terrible not being here for my city and my family, who were also impacted. My absence was painful.
Speaker 0: To go to Ghana, which I know you've said was a mistake now. But I I just am curious on the thought process behind it. Right. Because we know that there was warnings about the weather before you went and you still went. What was the thought process behind going to Ghana?
Speaker 1: So let me just tell you a couple of things. First of all, when the White House called and asked me if I would represent the president, I said, yes. It was gonna be a very, very short trip over a weekend and two business days. We need to look at everything about the preparation and all of that for the fires because I think when we evaluate that, we will find that although there were warnings that I frankly wasn't aware of, although there were warnings, I think our preparation wasn't what it typically is, meaning that before there's a major weather event, example, last week, when we knew we
Speaker 0: were gonna get into the
Speaker 1: rains Right.
Speaker 0: You saw
Speaker 1: us come together and us talk about, you know, get your sandbags, bring the k rails out. That type of preparation didn't happen. If that had, I will tell you, Alex, I wouldn't have even gone to San Diego, let alone leave the country.
Speaker 0: But what do you mean there were warnings you weren't aware of? Because I know we were talking about it on the news. A lot of people were talking about the problems, warning that this was gonna be a huge issue.
Speaker 1: So when I talked about it with with the fire chief, what she said is is that we have warnings of Santa Ana winds a lot. But predicting this, and you saw, we from the city, from the county, that level of preparation really didn't happen. So it didn't reach that level to me to say something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn't have gone on a trip.
Speaker 0: Why didn't that happen?
Speaker 1: But to me, I don't know. I mean, I think that that's one of the things we need to look at. So two investigations are taking place. One internal to the city, and that's the fire commission because that's mandated by the city charter. So the commission will hire an outside entity to examine everything, the pre deployment, you know, why were staffs why were firefighters sent home, you know, all of that that should have taken place that didn't.
And then also the governor has contracted with the Fire Safety Research Institute, which is a national institute that investigated what happened in the fires in Maui. So everything that happened, including that, needs to be examined. But I will tell you that I felt absolutely terrible not being here for my city and not being here for my family who was impacted by the fires as well. And so when I say it was a mistake, absolutely, the idea that I was not present was very painful.
