California fires live: Pressure grows on LA Mayor Karen Bass as broken promise is revealed

The Democrat used to travel the world as a Democratic member of Congress and of the House Foreign Affairs Committee before she became LA mayor in 2022.

While campaigining for mayor, she said: ‘not only would I of course live here, but I also would not travel internationally — the only places I would go would be DC, Sacramento, San Francisco and New York, in relation to L.A.’

But Bass was notoriously in Ghana when the horrific wildfires broke out in her city.

The mayor left to witness the inauguration of Ghana’s president even after the National Weather Service began ratcheting up warnings about the wind storm which ultimately led to the fires.

She cut short her visit and flew back to LAX on Thursday January 9.

But Sky News reporter Niall Blevins spotted her by chance at the airport and subjected her to a brutal two minute questioning.

Bass stared blankly into the middle distance when asked if she owed her constituents an apology and if she was considering her position.

Defenders of the mayor said it was right and proper for her to undertake some international travel as figurehead for one of the world’s most influential cities.

Bass traveled to Paris over the summer for the Olympics closing ceremony, with LA hosting the games in 2028.

During a press conference last week, she conceded there would be a post mortem about what went wrong in the city’s response once the crisis was under control.

Spencer’s been chronicling their heartbreaking journey on social media, from watching their home burn to searching through the ashes for anything that survived, and his emotional moments with Heidi have sparked an outpouring of support from fans.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna revealed on Sunday that the fake fireman had been arrested in glitzy Malibu – which was particularly ravaged by the largest of the fires – when he was caught burglarizing the abandoned and burnt out homes along the waterfront.

The burglar dressed as a firefighter was sitting on the side of the road in the Malibu area, causing LA Country Sheriff Luna to ask him whether he was okay. 

A man has been arrested after firefighters caught him ‘actively lighting fires’ in Los Angeles county, it has emerged.

Ruben Montes, 29, was arrested for arson on Sunday in Irwindale, California, roughly 16 miles away from Altadena, where the deadly Eaton Fire continues to rage.

Along with crews from other states and Mexico, hundreds of inmates from California’s prison system were also helping fight the fires. Nearly 950 prison firefighters were removing timber and brush ahead of the fires to slow their spread, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The practice is controversial as the inmates are paid little for dangerous and difficult work: $10.24 each day, with more for 24-hour shifts, according to the corrections department.

Extreme dry weather conditions due to a prolonged drought, dry vegetation and powerful Santa Ana winds that reached up to 80 mph in some areas this week proved to be the ‘perfect storm’ for the worst fire the area has seen in more than two decades.

Los Angeles residents have put up signs threatening to shoot looters as almost 70 opportunist criminals were arrested while trying to burgle evacuated homes.

The relative calm Sunday allowed some people to return to previously evacuated areas.

Jim Orlandini, who lost his hardware store in Altadena, a hard-hit neighborhood next to Pasadena, said his home of 40 years survived.

‘Tuesday night we didn’t sleep at all because we figured the house was gone,’ he said Sunday as he recalled the moment the fires spread to his neighborhood.

‘The whole time I was thinking, I don’t know what I’m going to find when I get back here and after 40 years, you know, you got a lot of stuff you forget about that would disappear if the house burned down. So we’re thankful that it didn’t.’

Homes that were destroyed in the Eaton Fire are left in the dark of night on January 12, 2025 in Altadena, California.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been slammed by Justine Bateman as ‘disaster tourists’ after they appeared volunteering during the LA wildfires.

The Hollywood actress, 58, took to X/Twitter to blast the couple after they were spotted in footage dressed in plain clothes and speaking with victims and other helpers.

From protecting P Diddy and enriching billionaires to an act of war and a deliberate political attempt to hasten high speed rail in California, internet wonks have been having a field day.

Others have claimed that it is part of a conspiracy to hasten 15-minute city plans for LA.

Some have even claimed there is a correlation between the use of smart meters and homes being destroyed, blaming lithium batteries for starting the fires.

Firefighters scrambled Sunday to make further progress against wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed 24 people in the Los Angeles area as forecasters again warned of dangerous weather with the return of strong winds this week. At least 16 people were missing, and authorities said that number was expected to rise.

The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds of 50 mph and gusts in the mountains reaching 70 mph. The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, said weather service meteorologist Rich Thompson.

‘You’re going to have really strong gusty Santa Ana winds, a very dry atmosphere and still very dry brush, so we still have some very critical fire weather conditions out there,’ Thompson said at a community meeting Saturday night.