LA Mayor Karen Bass continuing negligence to blame for botched Palisades Fire response, lawsuit claims

LOS ANGELES — The botched response to the Palisades Fire is down to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ “absence and continuing negligence,” a blistering new lawsuit claims.Bass and the city also worked to “cover up the mayor’s incompetence” by firing the fire chief who spoke out, the legal papers filed by celebrity Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos alleges.

The plaintiff, homeowner identified only as Aurora Point, LLC, demands a jury trial and damages for a slew of disastrous alleged missteps that allowed the Palisades Fire to destroy their home — along with around 7,000 others in the historic LA neighborhood.The lawsuit, filed on Friday, points to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to extinguish the Lachman Fire, which authorities say re-ignited into the Palisades Fire less than a week later.Crews were ordered to leave the scene of the Lachman Fire on Jan.2 even though the ground was still smoking, according to the suit — which repeats claims from sources who spoke to the LA Times last month.Firefighters had wanted to continue mop-up operations, but their requests were overridden, one source told the outlet.The lawsuit also outlines a litany of alleged blunders and crossed-wires across several city departments.These include ignoring red flag fire warnings due to powerful winds, not deploying enough firefighters and equipment, and allowing a strategic reservoir to run dry — causing fire hydrants to go empty as the flames tore through the city.“Much of the botched response was due to the absence and continuing negligence of Mayor Karen Bass, who had inexplicably left the country for a diplomatic visit to Ghana while Los Angeles burned,” the suit says.“The investigation into the Mayor’s mishandling of the crisis revealed that Mayor Bass’ office ignored critical emails warning of a potentially devastating inferno, which included multiple attachments from the National Weather Service charting the danger.”Bass is personally named as on...