Rick Caruso, who lost the mayoral race to Karen Bass in 2022, says he predicted the Palisades fire disaster six years ago, adding grimly: “I’m so sad that I was right.”
Caruso appeared this week on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” and though he did not blame Bass directly, the Republican real estate mogul says the city’s lack of fire preparedness overall – from brush-clearing to the water supply – made it obvious to him that a disaster was looming.
“Six years ago, we had a fire in Brentwood,” Caruso said on Friday’s episode of the HBO show. “And for those that don’t know, the Brentwood area, it’s 15 minutes from where the Palisades fire was. There’s 40-year-old vegetation between Brentwood and the Palisades. And at that time, I said, if that fire travels, it’s going to come through and wipe out the Palisades. I’m so sad that I was right.”
A recent fire in Malibu and the prevalence of the Santa Ana Winds
“It was predictable,” Caruso said. “Bill, what’s predictable is preventable. And then on top of it, to have a main reservoir out of service during peak fire season.”
“Yeah, I mean, that’s borderline negligence,” Maher responded.
“Running this city is running a business for the benefit of the residents,” Caruso said. “And what everybody should have been saying — we had all the alerts about the firestorm coming in or the winds coming in — why? Why wasn’t more done? Why didn’t we make sure the reservoirs were all topped off? We should never run out of water.”
Both Caruso and Maher gave Donald Trump some credit for long ago calling out the city and state’s longstanding policy of not clearing out vegetation in sensitive fire areas – something Maher said he mocked the then-and-soon-to-be President for when he said it.
“I remember when we had a fire when Trump was president, and he came in, he said, ‘You don’t rake. You’re not raking,’” Maher said, doing his infamously bad Trump impression. “And I did jokes about it. But, you know, we’ve got to get over this.”
Maher noted that the reflexive dismissals of everything Trump says are particularly harmful at the moments when he’s right.
“Just because Trump says it doesn’t mean it’s automatically wrong. Did he have a point about [brush clearing]?” Maher asked.
“Of course he did,” Caruso said.
Caruso also said his Palisades Village shopping mall property didn’t burn because, knowing he was constructing in a fire zone, only nonflammable materials were used and private firefighters were standing by. The key to rebuilding, he said, would be to “not build the same thing,” put power lines underground, and other mitigation measures.
Watch the entire clip above.
