The day before Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass left Ghana, her aides received an email from the city’s emergency management department warning “high confidence in the wind and rising fire conditions that will occur next week.”
Still, the mayor participated in a trip to the inauguration of the Ghanaian president and a cocktail party at the U.S. Embassy, on January 7, the day when the Palisades Fire broke out.
Bass’ team did not inform her of the email Friday, January 3, which recommended a meeting next Monday to coordinate the preparations for the expected strong winds. In the days before the bass flight, the National Weather Service also began reminding the public on social media about the growing risk of wildfires.
Over the past few weeks, bass has accused former fire chief Kristin Crowley of failing to warn her about the possibility of catastrophic winds. she Tell Fox 11 She wouldn’t even go to San Diego if she was told the fire was dangerous.
“For me, this isn’t that level, something terrible can happen, maybe you shouldn’t be traveling,” she said.
Bass fired Crowley on February 21, criticizing the Chiefs for handling the fire in Palisade that destroyed thousands of homes and killed 12 people. Crowley, who voted on the appeal scheduled for Tuesday, has appealed her dismissal.
The New York Times obtained through a public record request suggests that the emergency management department is providing advice to mayor staff on the weather prospects as forecasts grow increasingly terrifyingly.
More than 10 bassists received an email from January 3, including multiple attachments from the National Weather Service. An EMD official also wrote that Monday’s meeting will follow.
Deputy Mayor Zach Seidl, who received an email and oversees the bass communication, underscoring its importance, saying it did not suggest an impending disaster. By then, he said, email refers to a tentative meeting.
“This is not a warning to disaster,” he said. “This sends the opposite message.”
EMD spokesman Joseph Riser told the Times that the “tentative” mentioned the exact date and time of Monday’s meeting, not whether it would take place.
The list provided by EMD officials said the January 3 email was sent by EMD’s on-duty official Jillian de Vela to an internal organization called “EMD Unfavorable Weather” which included more than 100 officials, including firefighters, police officers, the Ministry of Water and Electricity, and LA Unifiend School District employees.
Christopher Anyakwo is Bass’ emergency operation executive, with more than a dozen other bassist assistants on the EMD’s unfavorable weather email list. The mayor and her chief of staff are not on the list provided by EMD.
The January 3 email contains 10 page attachments with forecasts from the National Weather Services with graphical displays Big red flame icon Title “Critical Fire Conditions”. The figure says that starting January 7, gusts of winds can reach 80 mph, combined with low humidity and very dry vegetation, pose major fire risks to Los Angeles and Ventura County.
On January 3, the day before Mayor Karen Bass flew to Ghana, the city’s emergency management sent a series of graphics to the National Weather Service, including a January 7 warning for “critical fire conditions.”
(National Meteorological Administration)
On January 3, De Vela also emailed two bassist assistants directly – Mayor’s Policy Director Annakwo and Jacquelyne Sandoval, sending them to the Zoom link for Monday’s meeting, which was officially known as the adverse weather coordination call.
Seidl said in an email to The Times that no one from the bass staff told her about the information in the January 3 email. He declined to say if any assistants suggested to the bass when the bass was worsening weather conditions.
Seidl has not answered questions about whether the information in the January 3 email has raised concerns from the mayor’s office or is serious about canceling the trip to Ghana. Instead, he repeated the mayor’s claim that Crowley was supposed to contact her about the weather.
“Before other major weather emergencies, the mayor, or at least the mayor’s chief of staff – has received a direct call from the fire chief, marking the seriousness of the situation. This time, this call will never come,” he said.
Crowley has repeatedly refused to weigh the mayor’s allegations in recent days, saying she is “Very proud of this work“Showed by city firefighters. Los Angeles Fire Department officials said they adhere to the agreement before and after the fire.
Crowley supporter Monica Rodriguez said the January 3 email – a group email and an email from two bassist assistants – showed that EMD officials provided potentially dangerous fire weather to the Bass’ team before leaving the country.
“She kept saying, ‘If I knew, I wouldn’t leave.’ But her staff did know,” Rodriguez said. “This proves whether her employees have notified EMD of potential threats, and EMD’s responsibility is to let us know about these potential weather events.”
EMD is one of the city’s smaller departments, surveillance and distribution of weather warnings to a range of agencies and elected officials. In 2024, EMD organized 20 adverse weather coordination calls, the agency said.
The mayor oversees the EMD, according to the city’s elected official emergency response manual. According to the agency’s 123 pages, the department’s officer is a position that rotates among employees, which is accused of notifying “relevant stakeholders” (including the mayor’s team) about preparations that have been carried out before threatening weather conditions. Adverse weather guide.
According to EMD guidelines, duty officers gather information about weather forecasts such as heat waves, atmospheric rivers and strong winds and may suggest launching adverse weather coordination conference calls.
In the last few days of December, the National Weather Service began a 1 p.m. briefing on fire risks, inviting fire departments and emergency preparation agencies in Los Angeles and Ventura County.
The first “fire phone” was held on December 30 and then on January 2, said Susan Buchanan, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. After that, she said, the afternoon call was held every day, followed by a daily webinar by the media and others.
The Weather Service warned about the possibility of “damaging sea wind resistance incidents” in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and the potential for “hazardous hazard duration”.
Forecasts include a 50% chance of strong winds starting on January 7, with peak gusts as high as 80 mph.
On January 3, strong and persistent wind events began on January 7, with gusts increasing to 60%, with gusts likely exceeding 80 mph.
On Sunday, January 5, the next day when Bass heads to Ghana, the forecaster uses one Purpleraising fire risk to the highest level, “extreme”.
That day, De Vela emailed the EMD adverse weather team by emailing it, suggesting predictions for extreme fire conditions.
At 11 a.m. on January 6, the National Meteorological Administration issued another warning, saying On X: “Be careful!!! Expect life-threatening, destructive, widespread storms in most of the Ventura/Los Angeles company.”
Three hours later, the meeting mentioned in the January 3 email took place.
According to Seidl, two people from the mayor’s office participated in Zoom: Sandoval and press secretary Gabby Maarse.
In a seven-page summary of the January 6 meeting, emergency management officials compared the coming winds to the fierce storm that hit the area in December 2011.
“This storm activity has the potential to generate life-threatening and destructive wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph.”
The document lists storm preparations planned by various city agencies, including the Ministry of Water and Electricity and the Ministry of Recreation and Parks. The fire department is scheduled to “pre-development field resources” before the extreme Santa Ana winds.
Bass returned from Ghana shortly before noon on January 8, and the Palisade fire broke out 24 hours later. She told reporters she took the “fastest route” and stayed in touch with public safety officials while traveling.
