{"id":163931,"date":"2026-02-04T19:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/163931\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T19:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:07:07","slug":"bass-directed-watering-down-of-palisades-fire-after-action-report-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/163931\/","title":{"rendered":"Bass directed watering down of Palisades fire after-action report, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For nearly two months, Mayor Karen Bass has repeatedly denied that she was involved in altering an after-action report<\/a> on the Palisades fire to downplay failures by the city and the Los Angeles Fire Department in combating the catastrophic blaze.<\/p>\n

But two sources with knowledge of Bass\u2019 office said that after receiving an early draft, the mayor told then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva that the report could expose the city to legal liabilities for those failures. Bass wanted key findings about the LAFD\u2019s actions removed or softened before the report was made public, the sources said \u2014 and that is what happened. <\/p>\n

The changes to the report, which was released on Oct. 8<\/a>, came to light through a Times investigation<\/a> published in December.<\/p>\n

The sources told The Times that two people close to Bass informed them of the mayor\u2019s behind-the-scenes role in watering down the report. One source spoke to both of the people; the other spoke to one of them. The sources requested anonymity to speak frankly about the mayor\u2019s private conversations with Villanueva and others. The Times is not naming the people who are close to Bass because that could have the effect of identifying the sources.<\/p>\n

One Bass confidant told one of the sources that \u201cthe mayor didn\u2019t tell the truth when she said she had nothing to do with changing the report.\u201d The source said the confidant advised Bass that altering the report \u201cwas a bad idea\u201d because it would hurt her politically. <\/p>\n

According to the source, the two confidants said that Bass held onto the original draft until after the changes were made. The source added that both confidants said they are prepared to testify under oath to verify their accounts if the matter ends up in a legal proceeding.<\/p>\n

Both sources said they did not know if Villanueva or anyone else in the LAFD or in the mayor\u2019s office made line-by-line edits at Bass\u2019 specific instructions, or if they imposed the changes after receiving a general direction from her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the changes [The Times] reported on were the ones Karen wanted,\u201d the second source said, referring primarily to the newspaper\u2019s determination that the report was altered to deflect attention from the LAFD\u2019s failure to pre-deploy<\/a> crews to the Palisades before the fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes and other structures, amid forecasts of catastrophically high winds. <\/p>\n

Bass did not respond this week to a request for comment for this article. <\/p>\n

The mayor has previously rejected several requests by The Times to be interviewed about the report. In response to written questions, a spokesperson for Bass\u2019 office said in an email in December: \u201cThe report was written and edited by the Fire Department. We did not red-line, review every page or review every draft of the report.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson, Clara Karger, said the mayor\u2019s office asked only that the LAFD fact-check any findings regarding the effect of city finances and high-wind forecasts on the department\u2019s performance in the fire.<\/p>\n

In a brief interview last month, Bass told The Times that she did not work with the Fire Department on changes to the report, nor did the agency consult her about any changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that I told them to do was I told them to talk to Matt Szabo about the budget and the funding, and that was it,\u201d she said, referring to the city\u2019s administrative officer. \u201cThat\u2019s a technical report. I\u2019m not a firefighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Villanueva declined to comment. He has made no public statements about the after-action report or any conversations he might have had with Bass about it. <\/p>\n

After admitting that the report was altered in places so as not to reflect poorly on top commanders, Fire Chief Jaime Moore said last month that he did not plan to determine<\/a> who was responsible, adding that he did not see the benefit of doing that.<\/p>\n

In an interview last month, Fire Commission President Genethia Hudley Hayes said Villanueva told her in mid-August or later that a draft of the report was sent to the mayor\u2019s office<\/a> for \u201crefinements.\u201d Hudley Hayes said she did not know what the refinements were, but she was concerned enough to consult a deputy city attorney about possible changes to the report.<\/p>\n

Hudley Hayes, who was appointed by Bass, said that after reviewing an early draft of the report as well as the final document, she was satisfied that \u201cmaterial findings\u201d were not altered.<\/p>\n

But the changes to the after-action report, which was meant to spell out mistakes and suggest measures to avoid repeating them<\/a> after the worst fire in city history, were significant, with some Palisades residents and former LAFD chiefs saying they amounted to a \u201ccover-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

A week after the Jan. 7, 2025, fire, The Times exposed LAFD officials\u2019 decisions not to fully staff up and pre-deploy all available engines<\/a> and firefighters to the Palisades or other high-risk areas ahead of the dangerous winds. Bass later ousted Fire Chief Kristin Crowley<\/a>, citing the failure to keep firefighters on duty for a second shift. <\/p>\n

An initial draft of the after-action report said the pre-deployment decisions \u201cdid not align\u201d with policy, while the final version said the number of companies pre-deployed \u201cwent above and beyond the standard LAFD pre-deployment matrix.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author of the report, Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, declined to endorse<\/a> the final version because of changes that altered his findings and made the report, in his words, \u201chighly unprofessional and inconsistent with our established standards.\u201d <\/p>\n

Before the report was released, the LAFD formed an internal crisis management team and brought in a public relations firm<\/a> to help shape its messaging about the fire, though it\u2019s unclear what role each played, if any, in editing the report.<\/p>\n

Moore, an LAFD veteran whom Bass named as chief<\/a> in November, said he is focused on the future and not interested in assigning blame for changes to the report. But he said he will not allow similar edits to future after-action reports. <\/p>\n

Asked last month how he would handle a mayor\u2019s request for similar changes, he said: \u201cThat\u2019s very easy, I\u2019d just say absolutely not. We don\u2019t do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

The after-action report included just a brief reference to the Lachman fire, a small Jan. 1, 2025, blaze that rekindled six days later into the Palisades fire.<\/p>\n

The Times found<\/a> that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to roll up their hoses and leave the Lachman burn area the day after the fire was supposedly extinguished, despite complaints by crew members that the ground still was smoldering. The Times reviewed text messages among firefighters and a third party, sent in the weeks and months after the fire, describing the crew\u2019s concerns, and reported that at least one battalion chief assigned to the LAFD\u2019s risk management section knew about them for months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the Times report, Bass directed Moore<\/a> to commission an independent investigation into the LAFD\u2019s handling of the Lachman fire.<\/p>\n

LAFD officials said Tuesday that most of the 42 recommendations in the after-action report have been implemented, including mandatory staffing protocols on red flag days and training on wind-driven fires, tactical operations and evacuations. <\/p>\n

Pringle is a former Times staff writer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For nearly two months, Mayor Karen Bass has repeatedly denied that she was involved in altering an after-action…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[24058,12858,10800,1409,79310,4756,3802,4330,48,52,51,8440,47,50,49,4415,346,1839,3729,6708,1791],"class_list":{"0":"post-163931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-after-action-report","9":"tag-bass","10":"tag-change","11":"tag-city","12":"tag-early-draft","13":"tag-failure","14":"tag-fire","15":"tag-firefighter","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-lafd","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-mayor","24":"tag-office","25":"tag-palisades-fire","26":"tag-report","27":"tag-source","28":"tag-times"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}