Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was at a cocktail party at the U.S. ambassador to Ghana’s residence Jan. 7 as the Palisades fire exploded, pictures posted on social media show.
Bass was in Ghana as part of a Biden administration delegation to the inauguration of Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama. A gathering for the delegation was held at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Accra, Ghana, after the inauguration.
Bass had left Los Angeles several days before Mahama’s inauguration, as the National Weather Service intensified warnings about a coming windstorm. She returned to Los Angeles Jan. 8, more than 24 hours after the fires ignited. Her decision to leave the city amid the weather warning and the timing of her return have been heavily scrutinized in recent days, drawing ire and national media coverage.
In the days since the blazes ignited, Bass has been castigated for her early absence by her former mayoral opponent Rick Caruso and others. Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor wrote, “Inexplicable decision to not come back earlier” on X, and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who backed Bass in the 2022 mayoral race, told Puck, “If it is true that she left the country on a Saturday after the warning came out, that is a dereliction of duty.”
Bass appeared to have been posing for photos at the party just before 8 p.m. Ghanaian time that Tuesday evening, or just before 12 p.m. Los Angeles time, according to a photo posted on social media where an individual’s watch is visible. Evacuation orders were issued in the Palisades minutes later.
The photo was posted on Instagram and LinkedIn by Marissa Bowman, a city staffer who was not part of the official delegation.
“The presidential delegation was hosted by the United States Ambassador to Ghana on the way to the plane,” said Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl, referencing the military flight that Bass took from Accra to Washington, D.C., before boarding a commercial flight to Los Angeles. “For the majority of the time, the mayor was in a different room on calls from L.A.”
Seidl said the delegation left the ambassador’s house between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. local time, departing straight to the tarmac of a military base where the mayor “was on her way back to Los Angeles on a military flight by 9:00 pm.”
That would put her departure from the party between 12 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. Los Angeles time last Tuesday.
Bass arrived in Los Angeles at around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Other photos posted by Bowman and Ghanaian emcee Nathaniael Attoh show Bass smiling, posing and chatting with attendees. Bowman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The city’s emergency management department alerted Angelenos about the fire on social media at 11:22 a.m. on Jan. 7, writing on X that the Los Angeles Fire Department was “currently addressing a fast-moving brush fire situation in the Palisades Hills area” that already exceeded 10 acres, and warning residents to avoid the area.
Pacific Coast Highway was partially closed at Topanga Canyon Boulevard by 11:30 a.m. that same day, due to the fire, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
By noon that day, thick smoke was visible from across the city. The city issued evacuation orders at 12:07 p.m.
Staff writer Laura Nelson contributed reporting.