Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass abandoned LA as it burned — and new film proves it

A new documentary about the Palisades Fire of January shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) touring the Pacific Palisades as it burns behind them — with a contingent of Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters accompanying them instead of fighting the blaze.

The film, “Paradise Abandoned,” scheduled for release in December, is a reminder that the Palisades Fire will continue to haunt Bass as she seeks reelection — and Newsom as he seeks the presidency.

Newsom addressed adoring crowds of Democrats in Houston over the weekend, even picking up a presidential endorsement or two, though he has not yet officially launched his campaign.

He is touting his success in passing Proposition 50 — which gerrymanders California’s congressional districts for Democrats’ benefits — as he casts himself as the leader of the party.

But victims of wildfires back home are openly threatening to tank Newsom’s political prospects unless he makes amends. 

And any change may already be too late for residents who have been forced to sell their lots because of a lack of support from the state.

“Paradise Abandoned” claims authorities diverted firefighting resources during the fire, which burned over 23,000 acres, destroyed nearly 7,000 structures and killed 12 people.

It notes that despite the fact that Pacific Palisades was situated in “a region of maximum fire risk” ahead of predicted extreme winds Jan. 7, not one additional fire truck was deployed to the area.

Residents are shown having slipped past roadblocks on the second day of the still-burning fire to find out what happened to their homes.

They discover many have burned, with few firefighters in sight.

“The response is so f–king minimal,” one says.

Meanwhile, the film notes, many fire trucks were stationed on the outer perimeter of the fire — or at a command post in a beach parking lot below the town, where they served as a backdrop for local officials to stage press conferences. 

One resident recalls watching the Chase Bank building catch fire on the second day of the fire and burn completely through — while the governor and mayor toured the area.

“The mayor and the governor were in the middle of town, doing a news conference. And in the background, you see the Chase Bank building burning to the ground. They weren’t doing anything. The whole thing just burned right to the ground, with the mayor and the governor within a block of the place.”

Newsom and Bass are seen flanked by firefighters. 

“They weren’t doing anything,” the resident says.

Another resident who lost his home reiterates his disappointment at the apparent lack of help from firefighters.

“You’d think they would have made some sort of effort to try to save this neighborhood, and others,” he says. “And they didn’t come.” 

He said a neighbor who tried to alert firefighters on the beach saw them eating “breakfast burritos,” and was told they had been ordered to “stand down.”

Local firefighters have pushed back against such claims, explaining that they had to keep engines in reserve, given the lack of water, and that the wind — which reached almost 100 mph atop nearby mountains overnight — was simply too strong to have stopped the spread of the blaze.

Many residents have also shared stories publicly of firefighters struggling valiantly to save their homes — sometimes successfully, often in vain.

Still, for some locals, who watched fire trucks drive by as their homes burned, a sense of trust has been shattered.

And many continue to feel neglected by Newsom and Bass, as the politicians try to take credit for what they have called “the fastest fire recovery in modern history.”

True, the federal government cleared the burned lots in record time — but most still sit empty.

Many residents blame the state for not forcing insurance companies to pay out and also blame local government for bureaucratic delays in approving rebuilding permits.

The LA City Council has not even voted to waive permitting fees for fire victims yet, despite months of promises by Mayor Bass.

The Post reported last month that Newsom “nursed a bottle of tequila in his mansion while Los Angeles burned in the Palisades Fire — and pouted that President Trump was blaming him for the devastating blaze.”

“Paradise Abandoned” leaves little room for doubt.

“The people in power made a decision: not incompetence, not an inevitability, but a conscious decision to give up,” it declares.

Joel Pollak is opinion editor at The California Post, a sister publication of The New York Post that launches in early 2026.