Mayor Karen Bass’ office criticized a report Wednesday that said she directed the watering down of an after-action report that detailed failings of the Los Angeles Fire Department regarding last year’s deadly Palisades Fire.
In a statement, Bass’ office said she and her staff made no changes to the drafts, and said the mayor reviewed an early draft of the report and only asked the LAFD to make sure it was accurate on issues like weather and budget.
“The mayor has been clear about her concerns regarding pre-deployment and the LAFD’s response to the fire, which is why she called for an independent review of the Lachman Fire mop-up. There is absolutely no reason why she would request these details be altered or erased when she herself has been critical of the response to the fire — full stop,” according to the statement.
“This is muckracking journalism at its lowest form. It is dangerous and irresponsible for Los Angeles Times reporters to rely on third-hand unsourced information to make unsubstantiated character attacks to advance a narrative that is false,” the statement continued.
The Los Angeles Times, quoting two “sources with knowledge of Bass’ office,” reported Wednesday that after receiving an early draft, the mayor told then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva that the report could result in legal liabilities for those failures.
The Times reported that Bass held onto the original draft until after changes were made. It was unclear whether Villanueva or other LAFD officials or anyone in the mayor’s office made “line-by-line edits” at Bass’ specific instructions or if they imposed changes after receiving a general direction from the mayor.
Bass had previously denied she was involved in softening the report.
Clara Karger, a spokeswoman for Bass’ office, previously said “The report was written and edited by the Fire Department. We did not red-line, review every page or review every draft of the report.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who represents Pacific Palisades and Malibu, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Jan. 28, calling on him and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to fully investigate the true cause of the Palisades Fire.
“The city’s diluted report has lost all credibility,” Horvath wrote on a social media.
Horvath wrote in her letter that questions about the indicated cause still exist and deserve answers.
“As Cal OES prepares its final `2025 Wildfires, Winds, and PSPS After Action Report’ (State AAR), you have a unique and critical opportunity to ensure accountability,” Horvath wrote in her letter. “I respectfully request that the state AAR include an investigation of the circumstances that led to the ignition of the Palisades Fire, including review of the federal government’s findings, and whether appropriately sufficient resources were deployed to fight these fires.”
In January, Fire Chief Jaime Moore, who replaced Villanueva in November, acknowledged the after-action report was edited to reduce criticism of LAFD’s leadership.
Moore previously said he ordered a separate independent investigation into the Lachman Fire — a holdover fire that later erupted into the Palisades Fire — to closely examine the department’s decisions and procedures and determine where improvements are needed.
He formally asked the Fire Safety Research Institute to include the Lachman Fire as part of its broader analysis of January’s fires. The institute conducted an independent analysis of the L.A. fires, as ordered by state leaders.
The Times first reported the after-action report was altered after reviewing seven drafts before the final report was issued on Oct. 8, 2025.
Among the changes, according to The Times:
— LAFD officials removed language saying that the decision not to fully staff and pre-deploy all available crews and engines ahead of the historically strong winds that were forecast for the day of the fire “did not align” with the department’s procedures during red flag days, and said instead that the number of engine companies put in place “went above and beyond the standard LAFD pre-deployment matrix.”
— A section on “failures” was renamed “primary challenges.”
— An item saying that personnel violated national guidelines on how to avoid firefighter deaths and injuries was scratched.
— A passage alleging that some crews waited more than an hour for an assignment on the day of the fire was removed.
— An early passage containing the following language was removed: “If the Department had adequately augmented all available resources as done in years past in preparation for the weather event, the Department would have been required to recall members for all available positions unfilled by voluntary overtime, which would have allowed for all remaining resources to be staffed and available for augmentation, pre-deployment, and pre-positioning.” The final report said the LAFD “balanced fiscal responsibility with proper preparation for predicted weather and fire behavior by following the LAFD predeployment matrix.”
The fire erupted on Jan. 7, driven by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds. One of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history, it burned 23,448 acres and destroyed much of the exclusive Pacific Palisades community, destroying about 6,800 structures and killing 12 people.