Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass became evasive as reporters grilled her over the city’s preparedness for devastating wildfires that erupted while she was thousands of miles away on a trip to Ghana — and after the city slashed LA’s firefighting budget by tens of millions.

“LA County is in a panic state,” a CBS News reporter told Bass during a Thursday press conference, describing how his crew arrived after the Palisades Fire erupted on Tuesday — but for “several hours” didn’t see any fire engines or official response, and instead watched bystanders direct traffic and attempt to maintain order themselves.

“You were out of the country at the time,” the reporter said. “What explains this lack of preparation and rapid response?”

Rather than answering, Bass immediately deflected and said that for now, “we have to protect lives, we have to save lives, and we have to save homes.”

“Rest assured, when that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn’t work, and to correct or to hold accountable any body, department, individual, etc.”

Pressed further on whether her leadership was effective, Bass repeated the same response.

“I just said what I believe is the most important thing for us to do right now,” she said.

The mayor also provided little comment on water shortages that left hydrants across the city dry as firefighters hooked up their hoses and attempted to douse the flames — saying that she was frustrated by the problem, but disputed its scope.

“We also know hydrants are not designed to deal with this type of massive devastation, and that the number one problem especially on Wednesday was the fact that we weren’t able to do air support because of the wind,” she said. “Rest assured as soon as we’re done here, I will follow up with that.”

She also disputed accusations that her cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget had any effect on the city’s bungled response.

“I think if you go back and look at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days,” Bass said.

The budget, approved last year by Bass, cut mostly administrative jobs, but also axed about $7 million from its overtime budget — which was used in part to prepare for fire disasters. 

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned Bass just weeks ago in a memo that the budget reduction had “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,” NBC Los Angeles reported.

“I think it’s most important to understand that we were in tough budgetary times. Everybody knew that. But the impact of our budget really did not impact what we’ve been going through over the last few days,” the mayor said.

The comments were some of Bass’ first in public since she returned to Los Angeles Wednesday after being in Ghana to celebrate the African nation’s presidential inauguration while the fires kicked up in her city.

After she touched back down in America at the airport, she refused to respond to a reporter pressing her for comment, and instead stared blankly at a wall before hurrying off.

Shortly after her return, she hobbled through a press conference, telling those affected by the devastating fires to go to “URL,” as she read from a script. 

“If you need help, emergency information, resources, and shelter is available. All of this can be found at URL,” she flubbed. 

Many have accused her of being derelict in her duty to Los Angeles ahead of the fires — citing advisories the city issued days before sparks started flying that warned of dangerously high Santa Ana winds and the increased possibility of severe wildfires.

The cause of the fires — which have burned more than 30,000 acres (47 square miles) across five separate blazes in Los Angeles County — remains unclear.

At least five people have died in one of the blazes, the Eaton Fire, while officials are calling the largest wildfire, the Palisade Fire, the most destructive in the city’s history.