For nearly two months, Mayor Karen Bass has repeatedly denied that she was involved in altering an after-action report on the Palisades fire to downplay failures by the city and the Los Angeles Fire Department in combating the catastrophic blaze.<\/p>\n
But two sources with knowledge of Bass\u2019 office said that after receiving an early draft, the mayor told then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva that the report could expose the city to legal liabilities for those failures. Bass wanted key findings about the LAFD\u2019s actions removed or softened before the report was made public, the sources said \u2014 and that is what happened. <\/p>\n
The changes to the report, which was released on Oct. 8, came to light through a Times investigation published in December. The sources told The Times that two people close to Bass informed them of the mayor\u2019s behind-the-scenes role in watering down the report. One source spoke to both of the people; the other spoke to one of them. The sources requested anonymity to speak frankly about the mayor\u2019s private conversations with Villanueva and others.<\/p>\n
One Bass confidant told one of the sources that \u201cthe mayor didn\u2019t tell the truth when she said she had nothing to do with changing the report.\u201d The source said the confidant advised Bass that altering the report \u201cwas a bad idea\u201d because it would hurt her politically. According to the source, the two confidants said Bass held on to the original draft until after the changes were made. The source added that both confidants said they are prepared to testify under oath to verify their accounts if the matter ends up in a legal proceeding.<\/p>\n
In a statement provided after this article was published online Wednesday, Bass\u2019 office denied making changes to the drafts and attacked The Times\u2019 reporting. \u201cThe Mayor has been clear about her concerns regarding pre-deployment and the LAFD\u2019s 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 \u2014 full stop. She has said this for months,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
The Times found that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to roll up their hoses and leave the Lachman burn area the day after the fire was supposedly extinguished, despite complaints by crew members that the ground still was smoldering. The Times reviewed text messages among firefighters and a third party, sent in the weeks and months after the fire, describing the crew\u2019s concerns, and reported that at least one battalion chief assigned to the LAFD\u2019s risk management section knew about them for months.<\/p>\n
The alterations to the Palisades fire after-action report have raised significant concerns about transparency and accountability within the Los Angeles Fire Department and the mayor\u2019s office. The changes, which were made to downplay the LAFD\u2019s failures in responding to the fire, have been widely criticized as a \u201ccover-up.\u201d The incident highlights the need for independent investigations and transparent reporting to ensure that those responsible for public safety are held accountable for their actions.<\/p>\n
Q: What were the changes made to the Palisades fire after-action report?
\nA: The changes included removing or softening key findings about the LAFD\u2019s actions, such as the decision not to pre-deploy crews to Pacific Palisades before the fire.
\nQ: Who was involved in making the changes to the report?
\nA: According to sources, Mayor Karen Bass was involved in making the changes, and she instructed then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva to make the changes.
\nQ: What has been the response from Bass and the LAFD to the allegations?
\nA: Bass\u2019 office has denied making changes to the drafts, while the LAFD has said that it will not allow similar edits to future after-action reports.
\nQ: What are the implications of the alterations to the report?
\nA: The alterations have raised concerns about transparency and accountability within the LAFD and the mayor\u2019s office, and have highlighted the need for independent investigations and transparent reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Palisades Fire After-Action Report For nearly two months, Mayor Karen Bass has repeatedly denied that she was involved in altering an after-action report on the Palisades fire to downplay failures by the city and the Los Angeles Fire Department in combating the catastrophic blaze. Background on the Alterations But two sources with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/994b557\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x3150+0+425\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd0%2Ff2%2F12d29309467bbf7c50cd607c78c6%2F1536999-me-palisades-fire-1-year-anniversary-city-hall-ceremony-ajs-08.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28046,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28043\/revisions\/28046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}