Inside the U.S. Embassy in Ghana, Mayor Karen Bass was attending a reception with local and foreign dignitaries as her phone began to ping.

The first urgent message came from her deputy chief of staff, Celine Cordero.

It was 6:48 p.m. on Jan. 7 in the African nation and just before 11 a.m. on what would become a catastrophic day in Los Angeles.

“On phone with Chief Crowley now,” Cordero wrote from L.A., referencing then-Fire Chief Kristin Crowley in a group chat that included Bass and two of her closest aides, Deputy Mayor of Communications Zach Seidl and Chief of Staff Carolyn Webb de Macías. “2 significant fires in city now. She will call you mayor.”

Bass was more than 7,500 miles away from Los Angeles and had attended the inauguration of the Ghanaian president earlier that day as part of a Biden administration delegation.

She was set to depart Accra, the Ghanaian capital, in hours, just after the embassy cocktail party ended.

At home in Los Angeles, the winds were vicious.

A fire had ignited high in the hills of Pacific Palisades, and smoke was massing over the bone-dry ridgeline. Within hours, flames would ravage the affluent coastal community, eventually killing 12 people and destroying thousands of homes.

Cordero warned of “potential evacuations,” with 40-mph winds and “100 acres affected in the next 20 min.”

Back in the diplomatic compound, Bass — clad in a red dress and matching shoes — leaned in and smiled as she conversed with former German President Christian Wulff, a moment captured in a photo posted on social media.

Bass spent much of the party in a separate room making calls, her staff has said. Shortly before posing for a photo with a city staffer and a local DJ, Bass received another urgent text from Cordero. This time, Cordero included a wider group of senior mayoral aides.

“Palisades fire is now at 200 acres,” she wrote, noting that an evacuation order would soon go out.

Bass’ text messages from Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, during her last hours in Ghana and an anxious trip home, offer a vivid glimpse into how she led from afar during a defining chapter in Los Angeles history. Her handling of the fire and its aftermath will shape her prospects for reelection — and her legacy.

The Democratic leader of the nation’s second-largest city has fended off stinging critiques about her initial absence as well as her faltering leadership during the crisis. Bass removed Crowley as fire chief on Feb. 21, and her relations with some other leaders have been publicly strained.

The Times obtained the messages through a public records request filed on Jan. 10. Nearly two months later, the mayor’s office said there were “no responsive records,” later clarifying that Bass’ messages were set to auto-delete every 30 days.

The mayor’s office ultimately said it was able to recover the deleted messages using “specialized technology” and on Friday provided about 125 messages, saying that an unspecified number of additional messages were “redacted and/or withheld” based on exemptions to the California Public Records Act.

The messages to and from the mayor illustrate how Bass communicated with her staff and across levels of government, trying to marshal federal resources as the conflagration exploded into what became one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

They also show an Angeleno desperate to get home as the crisis on the ground worsened.

The following chronology is based on the text messages, an itinerary obtained through a public records request and flight records from FlightAware and Flightradar24. It is only a partial account of the mayor’s dealings, as it does not include her emails or phone calls.

Between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., the Biden delegation — including Bass and Ambyr Burrus, the Los Angeles Police Department officer traveling with her — crowded into official vehicles and drove to Kotoka International Airport, where a military jet was waiting for them.

Cordero was tasked with overseeing public safety in the absence of Deputy Mayor Brian Williams, who has been on leave since December as part of an investigation into whether he made a bomb threat against City Hall.

Her next text came at 8:07 p.m., or just after noon Los Angeles time.

“Crowley said homes will be lost soon,” Cordero wrote, noting that Gov. Gavin Newsom would be at a command post in a few hours, while she would meet with Crowley at the city’s Emergency Operations Center.

“Call me Zach immediately,” Bass wrote 20 minutes later.

In the mad rush to flee the flames, droves of residents had abandoned their cars in an immovable traffic jam on Palisades Drive. A radio reporter reached out to Bass, trying to get her to join him on the air, as her plane prepared to take off.

For the next four hours, the Gulfstream jet cruised northwest above western Africa and the Atlantic Ocean toward the small archipelago of Cabo Verde.

Bass repeatedly reminded her staff that she could make calls from the military flight.

“I have phone access on the plane!!! If you see a strange number it’s ME! 301 it will show as a military Base,” Bass texted the group at 9:48 p.m. Ghana time.

A few minutes later, Cordero addressed Bass in the group text, asking for permission to put together a meeting of the city’s general managers.

“It would be great to pull together a GM call and have you join. Stress urgency, importance of all hands on deck?” Cordero said.

An hour and a half later, Bass appeared to be on a call or Zoom with her staffers, writing, “I am listening don’t know why you can’t tell me.”

“Hear me!” she corrected herself.

“Oh no! Ok. No we can’t hear you,” Cordero responded.

Back in L.A., Crowley, Newsom, City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and other local leaders braved the winds for a hastily assembled news conference at Will Rogers State Beach. With Bass out of the country, Harris-Dawson was serving as acting mayor.

The worst could be yet to come, officials warned.

Bass and the rest of the Biden delegation remained on board as the plane stopped for roughly 40 minutes to refuel in Cabo Verde, then took off for the eight-hour flight to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Just after 1 a.m. Ghana time — or 5 p.m. Los Angeles time — Bass’ director of scheduling Yvette Rojas sent her a link to a Zoom titled “GM meeting – Fires.”

“Mayor, not sure if you were able to land,” Rojas wrote. “Sending this into the event you’re still able to join.” Bass called into the general managers’ meeting from the plane, her office said.

Five minutes later, Bass’ executive assistant Pamela Brown texted that she had managed to get live CNN working so the mayor could stream it.

As the plane crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the inky darkness and dusk began to fall over Los Angeles, Bass’ phone continued to buzz.

“The fires are just awful. Please let me know whatever I can do to help,” U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff — Bass’ former colleague in the House — wrote just after 2:30 a.m., Ghana time.

“Thanks so much I’m actually in the air headed home from Ghana I think I mentioned I attended the Inauguration I am following it while I make my way home but I know disaster aid will be needed especially given the challenges with homeowner insurance in this specific neighborhood — land in the am and I would like to be in touch by late afternoon after l’ve had a chance to see what is happening,” Bass responded at 3 a.m. Ghana time.

Schiff’s fellow California senator, Alex Padilla, reached out to Bass a few minutes later.

“Karen, I [imagine] you’re incredibly busy at the moment. Just want to check in. My staff is in touch with OES, CalFIRE, and other emergency personnel. Let us know how we can support,” Padilla wrote.

“Thank you Alex I’m actually on a plane rushing back from Africa I should be in town by noon tomorrow. Thanks a million I will want to call you in a day or so I know we will need support. Thanks again,” Bass responded at 3:49 a.m.

Dan Koh, Biden’s deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, was the next federal leader to reach out offering support. He was one of several senior White House staffers who texted with Bass as she cruised toward the East Coast.

Meanwhile, conditions were worsening in Los Angeles.

“All aircraft grounded due to wind and visibility … Multiple civilian victims injured (# TBD),” Cordero wrote at 5:27 a.m. Ghana time, or just before 9:30 p.m. in Los Angeles.

Bass responded to Koh shortly after, writing: “Thank you so much for asking I’m on the plane headed back to DC and LA … and YES we will need help can we speak in a few hours when I have a better handle on things.”

Just before 10 p.m. L.A. time, or 6 a.m. Ghana time, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger texted Bass: “Trying to coordinate all resources for press conference in am. And I’m sorry you had to return home to this horrific situation,” Barger wrote with a concerned-face emoji.

“Exactly thank you and what worse is I’m in the air headed back from Ghana won’t be home until 11 am thanks for being on top of this,” Bass responded.

“Fire is now in Altadena … so requesting one press conference located downtown. Please have safe travels,” Barger, who represents the area that would be devastated by the Eaton fire, said with a prayer hands emoji.

Bass thanked her and checked to make sure Barger was getting full cooperation from Bass’ “folks.”

“Absolutely…. City has been incredible,” Barger responded.

Within minutes, Cordero dropped a disastrous new update from the LAFD into Bass’ group text.

Winds had “increased significantly, with gusts in the Palisades above 70 miles an hour. Fire department is essentially in life-saving mode, and structures are a secondary concern at this point.”

Four hours later — at around 5:20 a.m. Maryland time on Jan. 8 — Bass landed at Joint Base Andrews.

She and Burrys, the police officer traveling with her, hopped in a car provided by the White House and made the 45-mile trek to Dulles International Airport.

At Dulles, she boarded United Airlines flight 667 — a commercial flight, which meant she wouldn’t be able to speak on the phone and would be limited to in-flight WiFi. The plane left the gate at 8:42 a.m. EST and took off just before 9:15 a.m.

Nearly an hour into the flight, Bass received a lengthy message from L.A. Department of Water and Power chief Janisse Quiñones.

Quiñones apologized for missing Bass’ call and told the mayor that DWP hadn’t proactively shut off water in nearby Brentwood, which would have potentially allowed for higher water pressure on the front lines of the fire, “because the fire jumped to the area as we were considering doing so and they needed water there.”

But, she said, they were able to open refill stations for fire engines and had sent all their water trucks to the Palisades.

Bass said that was great news.

In quick succession, Bass’ phone pinged with messages from several senior Biden advisors.

As with Quiñones, she told each of them that she was on her way home and would be landing in just a few hours.

“Great,” Annie Tomasini, Biden’s deputy chief of staff, responded. “We are leaving LA this morning but let’s stay in touch the next couple hours if you need anything. You are in our thoughts, especially President Biden’s.”

“Thank you so much and PLEASE let the President know how much I appreciate him and his leadership,” Bass told Tomasini.

In Los Angeles, the sun was rising over neighborhoods brutalized by flames. Smoke lent artificial darkness and a filmy quality to the light in areas far from the conflagration.

At 9:30 a.m. L.A. time, with two more hours left in the flight, the mayor heard from her deputy chief of staff, Solomon Rivera.

“AEG called, considering cancelling Kings game tonite. Seems like we should encourage all large gatherings cancelled,” Rivera wrote. Bass agreed.

Just after 10 a.m. L.A. time, Bass texted L.A. Unified School District Supt. Alberto Carvalho, who was contending with major damage to his campuses.

“How are you doing? I’m still in the air land at lax shortly hopefully in the next 2 hours-so so sorry about Palisades HS can’t believe it!!! Any other schools in danger? Are you closing any schools out of precaution? Unbelievable!” Bass wrote.

Ten minutes later, Carvalho responded: “Hello mayor. We are ok. The sudden change overnight was difficult but we managed.”

A half hour later, Bass’ flight landed at Los Angeles International Airport, likely navigating through heavy plumes of smoke before arriving at the gate at 11:24 a.m.

By that point, Bass had been traveling for nearly 24 hours.

Just after she emerged from the plane, she was cornered by a Sky News reporter, David Blevins, who happened to be on her flight.

She stared ahead blankly for nearly a minute as Blevins peppered her with cutting questions about whether she needed to apologize to Angelenos for being in Africa.

She did not respond.

Times staff writer Laura Nelson contributed to this report.