Billionaire real estate mogul and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso is calling out local leadership after sharing a report Saturday suggesting the recent Palisades Fire could have been contained early on. In what many see as a sharp rebuke of the city’s mismanagement, Caruso implied that bureaucratic incompetence and slow response times allowed the blaze to spiral out of control.
The report used words such as “Unprecedented failure,” “predictable,” and “manageable” to describe the fires that resulted in nearly half of Southern California burning down. Now, Caruso demands that Democrat Mayor Karen Bass provide the state with answers.
“Unprecedented failure.” “Predictable.” “Manageable.” These are some of the words used in this report to describe the situation that led to the wildfires in January.
— Rick J. Caruso (@RickCarusoLA) May 31, 2025
No more buck passing. We need a clear response from Mayor Bass on what happened.
Read the report:… pic.twitter.com/NF3BCqKUXD
Initial reports from officials claimed that nothing could have been done to contain the fires due to unprecedented wind strength and extremely dry conditions, some attributing both to climate change. However, the report cited by Rick Caruso directly contradicts those claims. It states that wind levels were historically manageable during the first several hours of the fire, and the dry conditions were typical for California’s climate.
The report on Fire Rebuild found that the January Pacific Palisades fires broke out under typical and manageable weather conditions, contrary to public claims of extreme or unprecedented factors. It noted that wind speeds were moderate, drought levels were consistent with California’s usual climate patterns, and early fire warnings were timely and accurate. According to the report, the real failure wasn’t the weather, but the authorities’ inability to contain the fire despite having ample notice and favorable conditions.
Caruso is warning that Los Angeles is on the brink of failure in its effort to recover from the devastating fires.
In an op-ed, Rick Caruso criticized the city for its “self-congratulatory” response to the recent fires, calling its claim of the “fastest disaster recovery in modern California history” both misleading and premature. He argued that the city is more focused on comparing the current disaster to past ones than honestly confronting its failures. Caruso also pointed out that only 31 rebuilding permits have been approved so far and accused local officials of operating under a “veil of secrecy” that has left residents frustrated and in the dark.
“In LA, we have the best and brightest companies, executives, and workers of anywhere in the world, and they’re all eager to contribute,” he wrote. “But, instead of embracing this invaluable resource as the X-factor that can make our recovery both different and better, the city has shunned it. They don’t return calls, there hasn’t been an effort to proactively engage, and there are no signs that the city wants to leverage this wealth of knowledge and ideas to drive the response, even though it’s impossible to execute a rebuild of this size without the private sector taking a significant portion off the government’s plate.”
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