LA firefighters union chief Freddy Escobar didn’t set out to become the latest casualty in Mayor Karen Bass ’s endless game of political self-preservation.

A thirty-six-year veteran of LAFD, he simply did what any decent union president would do when thousands of homes were reduced to ash and firefighters were stretched to the breaking point: he told the truth.

The Palisades Fire of January 2025 wasn’t some unavoidable act of God. It was the predictable result of chronic understaffing, slashed budgets, and a mayor who treated public safety like an inconvenient line item on her path to re-election.

LA firefighters union chief Freddy Escobar didn’t set out to become the latest casualty in Mayor Karen Bass’s endless game of political self-preservation. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Escobar said it out loud: Bass, apparently, couldn’t stand it. Ringo Chiu

Escobar said it out loud: Bass, apparently, couldn’t stand it.

So she went after him.…