Mayor Karen Bass was at cocktail party in Ghana as fires began after leaving LA the day windstorm warnings were intensified

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was not only out of the country the day that the Palisades Fire exploded into one of the worst fires the state of California has ever seen, she was at a cocktail party in Ghana hobnobbing with that nation's political elite. She'd been in Ghana for the inauguration of new President John Dramani, which she'd attended earlier in the day.

She left her home city on January 4—the same day the National Weather Service "intensified warnings about a coming windstorm," the LA Times reports. By January 8, when Bass was returning home, the fire had already blossomed horrifically and smoke plumes were visible across the city. The reception attended by Bass was hosted by the US Ambassador to Ghana, a spokesperson for whom said that Bass spent much of the time on her phone in another room. 

Bass was also posing for photos, the LA Times reported, "just before 8 pm Ghanaian time, the day the fire ignited, or just before 12 pm in Los Angeles." Just minutes after the photo was snapped, evacuation orders were issued for Pacific Palisades. So far, 24 people are dead, thousands of homes and buildings have burned to the ground, more than 150,000 people have been displaced, and the Palisades Fire, the largest of the four fires burning in the area, is not even 50% contained.
 

Here’s Karen Bass at a cocktail party in Africa as Pacific Palisades was burning. pic.twitter.com/z7iSCYC1mi

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 15, 2025