Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt said Sunday Mayor Karen Bass is to blame for the warehouse fire in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood, which began Wednesday and remains active.Pratt likened Bass’s handling of the blaze to her response to the Palisades Fire in January 2025, a talking point the reality TV star used to fuel his failed independent campaign by blaming Bass for burning down his house.“Karen was sipping cocktails in Chicago when the Boyle Heights fire erupted,” Pratt claimed, “just as she was sipping cocktails in Ghana when our Palisades Fire erupted,” referring to criticism Bass faced for being in Ghana when the fires erupted in Los Angeles.
Karen was sipping cocktails in Chicago when the Boyle Heights Fire erupted, just as she was sipping cocktails in Ghana when our Palisades Fire erupted. I warned you all…what happened to us will happen to all of LA. That smoke choking out LA is full of lead. Don't breathe it! https://t.co/U0DSMqRhL0 pic.twitter.com/HnBLFvl2uj— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 21, 2026
The fire broke out at a frozen food warehouse on Wednesday in the neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles, prompting local officials to issue an eventually lifted shelter-in-place order. Bass issued a local emergency declaration Saturday afternoon, while Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) declared a state of emergency Sunday morning.Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said Sunday the fire should be put out by week’s end if “progress continues at this rate,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “Officials warned of ‘very unhealthy’ air across wide stretches of L.A. County” as emergency responders cut into steel walls and deployed helicopters in the fight to extinguish the fire.Local residents reported burning throats and smoke that smells “like chemicals and plastic,” and the fire department said in its initial statement Saturday that “the smell of smoke has reached most of the city.”Pratt commented on the danger of the fumes, saying the spoiled food is less dangerous than the solar panels on the warehouse’s roof that “are spewing out deadly heavy metals that all of you are breathing in.” Pratt also said the same warehouse had a fire two years ago, and that “Karen Basura” slashed the fire department’s budget, tying that decision to the current predicament.
