Nearly 60,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, to resign immediately “due to her gross mismanagement and failure to effectively respond to” the fires.

“In the wake of these catastrophic fires, our city has been left in crisis,” the petition says. “Water supplies have been severely strained, billions of taxpayer dollars have been misallocated or left unaccounted for, and countless lives have been lost.

“Families have been displaced, homes destroyed, and livelihoods shattered — yet Mayor Bass has been absent from the front lines, choosing to travel abroad while her constituents suffer.”

When the wildfires broke out, Bass was in Ghana, where she was attending the inauguration of the country’s president.

She came under heavy criticism for having travelled there despite warnings of fire weather.