An expressionless Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass refused to answer reporters’ questions after being pressed on her initial absence as wildfires raged across her jurisdiction. 

“Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning? And do you regret cutting the Fire Department budget by millions of dollars, Madame Mayor?” Sky News reporter David Blevins asked as Bass waited to deplane Wednesday following her trip to Ghana. 

“Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?” he added. 

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES RAGE ACROSS LOS ANGELES COUNTY, FORCING THOUSANDS TO EVACUATE

Bass refused to acknowledge the reporter, continuing to ignore questions as she looked at the ground.

“No apology to them? Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home?” he said. 

“Madam mayor, let me ask you just again, have you anything to say to the citizens today as you return?” he said.

The Palisades Fire burns a structure in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday.  (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)

On Wednesday, during a late-afternoon news conference in Los Angeles, Bass said that she took the “fastest route back,” adding that she used a military plane for her speedy arrival.

“I took the fastest route back, which included being on a military plane, which facilitated our communications,” she said, acknowledging that she was thousands of miles away when the first wildfires broke out Tuesday. “So I was able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight.”

LOS ANGELES MAYOR SLASHED FIRE BUDGET LAST YEAR, PRIORITIZED HOMELESS POPULATION

“We are fighting for you and everyone in Los Angeles,” she said, appearing to be reading prepared remarks.

At one point during the news conference, the mayor’s notes appeared to bewilder her, and she mistakenly said: “Emergency information, resources and shelter is available. All of this can be found at URL.”

Bass’ leadership has been in the spotlight as many have blamed her for the disaster, pointing to the massive budget cuts she made to critical firefighting forces that she poured into spending on the city’s homeless population.

For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Los Angeles budgeted $837 million for the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), which was roughly 65% the size of the homeless budget of $1.3 billion.

From the 2023-2024 to the 2024-2025 budgets, the LAFD’s budget was reduced by $17,553,814 from $837,191,237 to $819,637,423.

Vehicles and a house burn as powerful winds fueling devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area force people to evacuate, at the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Calif., Wednesday.  (Reuters/David Swanson)

Bass’ arrival on the scene comes as wildfires continue to rage in Los Angeles County, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents under evacuation orders.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told Fox News that five people have been killed in the Eaton Fire, as of Wednesday afternoon.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Bass’ office for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Breck Dumas contributed to this report.

The celebration of San Francisco’s new mayor isn’t over yet.

San Francisco’s Chinatown hosted a community banquet, a special night market and community-led celebration for new mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday night.

There will be live performances, an opportunity to showcase artists and Chinatown restaurants and small businesses said they’re ready for it.

Some of the people who spoke to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday said that clear Lurie is bringing a lot of hope for change to those in this community. A section of Grant Avenue was transformed to host a special night market in celebration of San Francisco’s new leadership.

Lurie made the rounds on Wednesday morning before being sworn in as the city’s 46th mayor and touted the event.

“We’re going to have some celebrations in Chinatown tonight,” he said.

Tane Chan of the Wok Shop said that she thinks the new mayor’s decision to put Chinatown in the spotlight could have a lasting impact.

“We have had some tough times and with mayor Lurie here encouraging all the visitors and all the residents to come and walk through Chinatown and just give us boost,” she said.

Mark Young, co-chair of the unity celebration banquet, said that people can feel the buzz in Chinatown.

“There is going to be 18 vendors a local headliner DJ, his name is Zhu,” he said. “There is going to be cultural festivities as well as this banquet that we have going on which is going to have over 900 guests from the AAPI community.”

The night market celebration is cohosted by the inaugural committee and the non-profit group ” Be Chinatown.”

Jayde Wong with Lion Dance Me said they’re bringing about 75 high school students out to perform at Wednesday night’s event.

“We’re bringing out all red lions tonight and red is the symbol of good fortune and so we’re some hoping to bring some good fortune to Daniel Lurie during his term as mayor and hopefully he will bring some good fortune back to our community as well,” she said.

The night market runs until 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Broncos’ route to their first playoff berth since 2015 took them through highs and lows from coast to coast. They lost in Seattle and won in Tampa. They spent a week in West Virginia and played Thursday night on the road twice.

They ripped through Sean Payton’s old division, sweeping four games against the NFC South.

They won three or more straight twice, lost back-to-back twice and ultimately clinched a spot in the AFC Wild Card round on the final day of the regular season.

Along the way, Bo Nix and company turned a low-expectation season into a 10-win success story. Here are the 10 moments that defined the run.

1. Bo breaks out

Week 3 at Tampa Bay

The Broncos set out on a two-game East Coast swing with an 0-2 record and a rookie quarterback who’d thrown four interceptions without a touchdown in his first two starts. Instead of trying to break him in slowly against a solid Tampa Bay team, though, Sean Payton got aggressive. Nix zipped the Broncos down the field by completing four passes for 70 yards and then scoring on a 3-yard run. Denver’s defense snuffed Baker Mayfield and company and the Broncos rolled to a 26-7 win — their first of the season. Not only that, but they got a glimpse of what their young quarterback could do when in rhythm.

2. Hurricane hunters

Week 4 at New York Jets

The Broncos spent the work week following Tampa Bay at the Greenbrier in West Virginia. Despite some trepidation about the trip beforehand, Broncos players now look back on it as a galvanizing week for a team still figuring out its identity. Of course, they had some rigmarole, too. The remnants of Hurricane Helene marred the practice week and forced the team onto indoor tennis courts for its Friday practice. That hardly mattered for Vance Joseph’s group, which dominated Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets that weekend. Nix might have had minus-7 passing yards in the first half, but the defense ensured it didn’t matter. Biggest play of the game: A fourth-and-10 sack of Rodgers by P.J. Locke off the edge. It was a moment when Denver realized it might just have something special brewing.

3. Pick-six Pat

Week 5 vs. Las Vegas

All of the good vibes the Broncos found in John Denver country looked like it might go for naught back home against the Raiders. Nix threw an early pick, Denver started slow and was on the verge of falling behind 17-3 when All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II made one of the signature plays of the season. He snatched a Gardner Minshew overthrow and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown. Instead of a 14-point hole, the Broncos pulled even with Las Vegas. By the end, Minshew was benched and Denver rolled to a 34-17 win. It put an embarrassing, eight-game losing streak to the Raiders to bed and showed Denver had toughness and resilience.

4. Sean smashes the past

Week 7 at New Orleans

It’s not that Payton didn’t seem happy to be in Denver before this game, but something clicked for him when he took the Broncos to New Orleans for his homecoming bout against the Saints. After Denver smashed the Saints, 33-10, Payton gave perhaps his most introspective public comments since he got the Broncos job. “I’m glad I’m here,” he said, referring to his current employer. There was something cathartic about the win — players knew it meant a lot to their coach — and of course, it mattered in the scorebook, too. It put the Broncos back above water at 4-3 and sent them into a mini-bye week on a positive note.

5. OLB future set

Week 9 at Baltimore

The Broncos only made one move at the trade deadline and it was to send Baron Browning to Arizona despite a 5-4 record. They had more than just the one move in mind, though. Denver the day before their game at Baltimore agreed to a four-year contract extension with OLB Jonathon Cooper, finalizing a choice of direction for the future on the edge.

The solidification of Cooper as a building block coincided with Nik Bonitto’s rise. He entered that week with sacks in six straight games and, though the streak ended against the Ravens, he then went five more games after with at least a half sack. The group entered the season with question marks. Now it looks like a long-term strong spot. That got set in stone with this pair of moves.

6. Progress blocked

Week 10 at Kansas City

Nix and the Broncos offense authored a defining moment of the season when they drove into position to beat Kansas City in the waning seconds at Arrowhead Stadium. Disaster followed. Wil Lutz’s 35-yard field goal was blocked when the Chiefs caved in the left side of Denver’s protection unit — an issue that had been bubbling for weeks — and stole a win in the process. The Broncos’ postgame locker room was as devastated as you’ll find in the regular season. Denver players vowed to make sure the moment didn’t break their spirits, and indeed from there the group mounted a four-game winning streak to get from 5-5 to 9-5.

7. A helping heave

Week 11 vs. Atlanta

Perhaps no moment captures how the Broncos rebounded from that crusher in Kansas City better than Javonte Williams’ touchdown “run” against the Falcons the next week. Quotation marks because, of course, Williams didn’t actually run into the end zone. He thumped former Denver stalwart Justin Simmons at about the 4-yard line, pushed him toward the goal line and then hung on while several teammates joined the scrum and literally carried him into the end zone. “That’s a culture play right there,” defensive tackle Malcolm Roach said after his team polished off a 38-6 whooping of the Falcons in which Nix threw for 304 yards and four TDs.

8. Marvelous Marvin

Week 13 vs. Cleveland

Marvin Mims Jr.’s resurgence in Denver’s offense had already begun before the Broncos started a wild, back-and-forth Monday night shootout against the Browns. But he made the single-biggest play of his season so far in the second half. Mims trucked up the seam and hauled in a perfect ball from Nix before racing to a 93-yard touchdown. It only temporarily put Denver up two scores — old friend Jerry Jeudy quickly responded with a 70-yard touchdown — but it served two purposes: The Broncos found a down-the-field option and Mims got uncorked for what has turned into a highly productive stretch run.

9. Casa Bonitto

Week 15 vs. Indianapolis

The Broncos’ third-year outside linebacker was already in the midst of a breakout season, but he turned the dial up in December. Bonitto ran an interception back for a touchdown against Cleveland and then made the play of his season against the Colts. He read an attempted trick play, snatched a lateral at midfield and ran it back 50 yards for a touchdown. It was part of a scoring blitz that turned a near two-score deficit — thank you Jonathan Taylor — into a comfortable lead and critical victory for the team’s playoff hopes. Bonitto’s 13.5 sacks are accentuated by two touchdowns and several late-game, closer-type plays. This one was all of the above.

10. Clinching time

Week 18 vs. Kansas City

The Broncos missed on two chances to clinch, blowing a 21-10 lead against the Los Angeles Chargers and falling in overtime at Cincinnati. That left just the finale against the Chiefs to get the job done. They caught a break when Andy Reid’s team already had the No. 1 seed wrapped up and sat more than a dozen key players, but they also made sure that break didn’t go begging. Nix threw for 321 yards and four touchdowns, the defense held Carson Wentz and the Kansas City offense to 97 total yards and the Empower Field crowd partied and celebrated a long-awaited return to the postseason.

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