“I just said what I believe is the most important thing for us right now, and that is going to continue to be my focus,” Bass said in response.
Prior to this question, the reporter brought up that Bass was in Ghana when the fires broke out Tuesday. The reporter shared how his news team arrived immediately in Los Angeles and how the city was not equipped to handle the crisis. He even mentioned to Bass that he did not see a single fire truck on the street.
“You were out of the country at the time,” the reporter said to Bass. “Shortly after the fire started, a press release was put out warning of this fire behavior. My question to you is, what explains this lack of preparation and rapid response?”
“Let me just say, first and foremost, my No. 1 focus, and I think the focus of all of us here with one voice, is that we have to protect lives. We have to save lives, and we have to save homes,” Bass said.
“But that didn’t happen,” the reporter interjected.
“Rest assured,” Bass said. “When that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved, and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn’t work and to correct or to hold accountable anybody, department, individual, etc., but my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.”
Later in the press conference, another reporter questioned Bass about the lack of resources available to first responders and cited how fire hydrants aren’t working.
“We’re almost 48 hours after this fire started,” the reporter said. “Where’s the National Guard?”
In response, Bass cited how the unprecedented winds have exacerbated the wildfires.
“We all know that this has been an unprecedented event,” Bass said. “We also know that fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation and that the No. 1 problem, especially on Tuesday, I mean, on Wednesday, was the fact that we weren’t able to do the air support because of the winds. And so, of course, I am absolutely frustrated by that.”
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Bass’s responses to the reporter’s questions during Thursday’s press conference were polar opposite to how she responded when questioned by a reporter as she was coming off the plane from her trip in Ghana.
In the 90-second exchange, the reporter asked Bass ten questions, to which she stared blankly and gave no response.
