LA fire chief rips massive failure of leadership by Karen Bass in damning Senate testimony

A veteran Los Angeles-area fire chief ripped into Mayor Karen Bass her “failure of leadership” by taking a trip to Africa just days before the deadly fires erupted.Redondo Beach Fire Chief Patrick Butler took direct aim at mayor Bass and California officials under Governor Gavin Newsom, saying their dysfunctional leadership during the crisis worsened the devastation from the inferno that erupted on January 7.The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is conducting an ongoing probe that could ultimately determine who was responsible for the blaze.‘’During the critical preparedness period, the mayor was out of the country despite knowledge of the forecasted life-threatening conditions,” Butler said, referencing Bass’s controversial trip to Ghana Africa before the fires.”Responsibility for continuity of leadership and citywide coordination rests with the mayor, and in this case, that responsibility was not met.””This was not a failure of effort by firefighters,” Butler added.”It was a failure of leadership above them.”Butler’s testimony was part of an inquiry by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 homes.A neighboring blaze, the Eaton Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, burned simultaneously, killing 19 people and and destroying more than 9,400 homes.Sen.

Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), the committee’s chair, dismissed post-fire explanations from city and state leaders as a ”whitewash” and vowed to compel testimony and subpoena records to determine how Los Angeles and California officials failed to respond.”The main part of this investigation is to expose what happened, name names and identify the incompetence so it doesn’t happen again,” Johnson said.”This has to be a blame game.

People lost their lives.”Meanwhile Rick Crawford, a retired ...