One Year after LA Wildfire Disaster, Mayor Bass and CA Gov. Newsom Duck the Spotlight

One Year after LA Wildfire Disaster, Mayor Bass and CA Gov. Newsom Duck the Spotlight

One year ago, a series of fast-moving wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds tore through the Los Angeles region, with the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires at the center of what would become one of the most destructive urban fire disasters in California history.

The blazes killed at least 30 people, forced more than 180,000–200,000 residents to flee, burned over 57,000 acres, and destroyed or damaged more than 18,000 homes and other structures across communities from Pacific Palisades and Malibu to Altadena and the San Fernando Valley. The disaster caused tens of billions of dollars, and the region has still not recovered.

The leadership shown by both Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom has been so feckless that they ducked appearances at anniversary events commemorating the historic inferno.

Neither attended the public vigils, tributes, concerts and other ceremonies held in commemoration of twin blazes that took 31 lives and destroyed 13,000 homes across the region starting last Jan. 7. Instead, they met privately with survivors and civic leaders, visiting memorials and sharing some details after the fact.

Their decisions not to appear at the public events underscored the potential political peril the fires raise for them as Bass runs for reelection this year and Newsom prepares for a likely bid for president in 2028. The pair have faced intense criticism as wildfire survivors demand accountability for a slew of gaffes, including the failure of firefighters to fully extinguish a small fire days earlier that reignited into the inferno that later wiped out the Pacific Palisades.

…Survivors who gathered Wednesday said they were upset but not surprised that the governor and mayor weren’t around.

“They’re smart enough to know that they would get pummeled if they showed up,” said Robert Toomire, 57, a Palisades resident.Their decisions not to appear at the public events underscored the potential political peril the fires raise for them as Bass runs for reelection this year and Newsom prepares for a likely bid for president in 2028. The pair have faced intense criticism as wildfire survivors demand accountability for a slew of gaffes, including the failure of firefighters to fully extinguish a small fire days earlier that reignited into the inferno that later wiped out the Pacific Palisades.

The chief reason neither Bass nor Newsom could expect to get a warm welcome from residents is that the recovery process has been a spectacular failure. Fewer than 12 of the thousands of homes destroyed in the wildfires have been rebuilt.

The streets of the coastal community of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, a community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, remain lined with dirt lots. In the seaside city of Malibu, foundations and concrete piles rising out of the sand are all that’s left of beachfront homes that once butted against crashing ocean waves.

…About 900 homes are under construction, potentially on pace to be completed later this year.

Still, many homeowners are stuck as they figure out whether they can pay for the rebuilding process.

Scores of residents have left their communities for good. More than 600 properties where a single-family home was destroyed in the wildfires have been sold, according to real estate data tracker Cotality.

The article cited was from the Associated Press, which is hardly a beacon of conservative advocacy. If this level of failure is highlighted in their story, it will surely follow Newsom onto the campaign trail as he runs for President. Surely one of his Democratic opponents will note the troubled reconstruction process.

Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times recently published a detailed look at several draft after-action reports prepared to review the response of the city’s Fire Department. The article noted that once a draft was finished, officials quietly deleted and changed sections in ways that softened or obscured leadership failures in preparing for and fighting large-scale wildfires.

In one instance, LAFD officials removed language saying that the decision not to fully staff up and pre-deploy all available crews and engines ahead of the extreme wind forecast “did not align” with the department’s policy and procedures during red flag days.

Instead, the final report said that the number of engine companies rolled out ahead of the fire “went above and beyond the standard LAFD pre-deployment matrix.”

Another deleted passage in the report said that some crews waited more than an hour for an assignment the day of the fire. A section on “failures” was renamed “primary challenges,” and an item saying that crews and leaders had violated national guidelines on how to avoid firefighter deaths and injuries was scratched.

Other changes in the report, which was overseen by then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva, seemed similarly intended to soften its impact and burnish the Fire Department’s image. Two drafts contain notes written in the margins, including a suggestion to replace the image on the cover page — which showed palm trees on fire against an orange sky — with a “positive” one, such as “firefighters on the frontline,” the note said. The final report’s cover displays the LAFD seal.

It took 7 drafts to make the final version palatable to LAFD leadership.

The chief of the Los Angeles City Fire Department Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that the after-action report on the Palisades Fire was edited multiple times to make the department leadership look better.

While speaking at the LA Fire Commission meeting, Chief Jaimie Moore said the report was tweaked several times to thwart the blame on the LAFD leaders.

“It is now clear that multiple drafts were edited to soften language and reduce explicit criticism of the department leadership in that final report,” Moore admitted. “This editing occurred prior to my appointment as Fire Chief. And I can assure you that nothing of this sort will happen ever again while I am Fire Chief.”

In other words, the leadership has really learned nothing in the wake of the disaster. This cannot be a comforting thought to people who remain residents in this area, especially as Santa Ana winds will inevitably blow again…as they will this weekend.

🚨 HIGH WIND ALERT 🚨
Santa Ana wind–prone areas will see high wind warnings and advisories through the weekend. This is a long-duration wind event, not a quick hit.

⚠️ Key concerns:
🌳 Downed trees and power lines due to saturated, soft soil
🚛 Dangerous crosswinds — big rigs… pic.twitter.com/bsikJFgImp

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) January 9, 2026

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