As the Los Angeles Fire Department publicly upgraded its warnings of extreme fire threats, Mayor Karen Bass opted to remain in Ghana, where she was attending a cocktail party when wildfires broke out in her city last month. The department pointed to its escalating alerts after Bass accused fire chief Kristin Crowley on Tuesday of failing to adequately warn her of impending danger.

The fire department also told the Washington Free Beacon that before the wildfires broke out on Jan. 7, it posted public notifications, conducted multiple media interviews, coordinated with other city departments, and "notified City Officials about the upcoming weather event." The department, however, declined to specify when city officials were notified or if the mayor was among them.

Regardless, Bass’s office was at least aware of the dangers while she was abroad, posting her own warning on Jan. 7 at nearly 4 a.m. Ghana time. The National Weather Service of Los Angeles also posted alerts in the days before Bass departed the city on Jan. 4.

During a Tuesday interview, Bass said Crowley didn’t warn her before she left for Ghana and skipped the "normal preparations" for the incoming Santa Ana winds, which created the extreme fire conditions.

"When I talked about it with the fire chief, what she said is is that we have warnings of Santa Ana winds a lot. But predicting this?" Bass said. "That level of preparation didn’t happen."

The fire department disputed that claim.

"The LAFD followed our standard preparation procedures for the predicted extreme fire weather on January 7th," a department spokesman wrote in an email to the Free Beacon.

"Additionally, public notifications and media advisories were made while the LAFD coordinated with other city departments and elected officials," the spokesman added. "Prior to the Palisades Fire starting, the LAFD emailed two separate media advisories, conducted multiple live and recorded media interviews about the predicted extreme fire weather, and notified City Officials about the upcoming weather event."

The spokesman also pointed to several emergency alerts the department posted while Bass was abroad, before the wildfires broke out. Yet the mayor stayed in Ghana until the blazes began scorching through her city, ultimately burning through some 40,000 acres and more than 17,000 structures until they were finally contained on Jan. 31.

"LAFD: EXTREME FIRE DANGER with DANGEROUS WINDS in LA mountains, foothills, and valleys Tuesday morning to Wednesday afternoon," the fire department posted Jan. 6 on X. The spokesman told the Free Beacon that "local elected officials are included on the distribution list."

Bass’s office was apparently aware of the threat. Her X account posted about an hour later that there was "an expected destructive and potentially life-threatening windstorm."

The fire department also posted red flag alerts—denoting the highest risk of fire—on Jan. 6 and 7 on LAFD.org.

At the time the wildfires started, Bass was photographed at a cocktail party at the U.S. embassy. Bass didn’t return to Los Angeles until the following day and made her first public appearance at a Wednesday evening press conference where she blamed the crisis’s magnitude on climate change.

There were other official, public warnings even before Bass left her city. The National Weather Service of Los Angeles issued an "extreme fire weather conditions" warning two days before her departure, which it then escalated into a "major risk"—its second-most severe alert—the day before she left.

The department’s rebuttal to Bass’s interview follows weeks of tensions between fire officials and the mayor. The week the fires ignited, Crowley told Fox 11 that she felt let down by the city, sparking rumors the mayor would fire her.

Over the year prior, when Bass cut the fire department’s budget by more than $17 million, Crowley repeatedly warned that she needed more money. In a November memo that Bass’s office scrubbed in the early days of the wildfires, Crowley stated Los Angeles had roughly half the number of firefighters necessary for a city of its size, the Free Beacon has reported. The fire chief then warned on Dec. 4 that the department’s inadequate staffing would hamper wildfire response.

The blazes are projected to be the costliest disaster in the nation’s history, causing an estimated $250 billion in damage.

Bass’s office did not respond to a request for comment.