Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass (D.) has been celebrating a presidential inauguration in Ghana while wildfires ravage thousands of acres in her city and first responders report that fire hydrants are running dry.
Bass is part of President Joe Biden's four-member delegation that attended Tuesday's inauguration of John Dramani Mahama as Ghana's president. Angelenos have responded with "a lot of frustration," the San Francisco Chronicle's Emily Hoeven reported, with one resident tweeting, "I'm mad at what I saw. Our politicians have failed us."
"If you're wondering, 'Where is L.A. mayor Karen Bass?'" one Fox 11 reporter told viewers, "she's been in Ghana."
The mayor is reportedly flying back to Los Angeles, where wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Sylmar neighborhoods have forced tens of thousands to evacuate and left many more without power since Tuesday.
As winds shoot up to 100 miles per hour, firefighters are reporting that hydrants have gone dry, according to the Los Angeles Times. "There's no water in the fire hydrants," Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso said. "The firefighters are there, and there's nothing they can do—we've got neighborhoods burning, homes burning, and businesses burning."
Caruso, who lost to Bass in 2022's election, blamed the mayor for not preparing for fires.
"My understanding is the reservoir was not refilled in time and in a timely manner to keep the hydrants going," Caruso told Fox 11. "This is basic stuff. This isn't high science here. It's all about leadership and management, [which] we're seeing a failure of. And all of these residents are paying the ultimate price for that."
After a reporter asked why the hydrants are out of water, Caruso said, "That's a good question. And I think you should start asking. Why don't you call the mayor, who's out of the country, and ask her, and get an answer from her?"
Meteorologists warned city officials about "critical" weather conditions in the days leading up to the blazes, predicting a "recipe for fire," the Daily Mail reported.
The fires are zero percent contained as of early Wednesday, officials said. Fueled by strong Santa Ana winds from the east, the flames are spreading rapidly and could exacerbate in the coming days, according to reports.
California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) declared a state of emergency Tuesday evening.
Three additional fires have erupted, two in Los Angeles County and one in the neighboring Riverside County.
The Pacific Palisades fire scorched nearly 3,000 acres by Tuesday evening. "These embers are blowing everywhere, and I'm just watching it chew up the hillside," said Sheila Kelliher, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. "As it gets to each new patch of fuel, it's just exploding."
Pasadena Fire Department chief Chad Augustin described the fire in the Altadena-Pasadena region as "definitely the worst brush fire and worst incident that Pasadena has seen in its history."
"When I was driving to the command post, it really looked like an apocalypse," Augustin said. "You couldn't see—there was spot fires everywhere, there were trees coming down literally as we were driving. And multiple, multiple houses on fire."
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