Back to the fire. In terms of evaluating state government performance (which seems to be what most people here care about) I think we need to divide it into two categories: before the fire (preparation) and during the fire.
There is a whole lot of criticism about what happened or what didn’t happen before the fire. I think that a lot of it is bogus (delta smelt, sending equipment to Ukraine, preferring diversity over competence, etc.) and some of it may have real merit (cutting spending on fire preparation, lower amounts of water, etc.) We really won’t know the answers to this without a thorough examination of what went wrong. That will take place, but unfortunately both sides will predictably attempt to focus on the narrative that suits them the best.
Since the fire began, however, I think the government has performed very well, particularly Newsom. Bass less so; she seems to be preoccupied with deflecting blame which is never a good look.