Anguished Mom Confronts California Governor Outside Her Daughter’s Burned School amid L.A. Wildfires

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had an unexpected — and now viral — run-in this week with an anguished mom from Los Angeles who confronted him about his response to the raging wildfires around the city.

The blazes have particularly devastated the Pacific Palisades, where lawyer Rachel Darvish has lived her entire life, according to Sky News.

The broadcaster was following along with Darvish in the neighborhood for a segment when Darvish spotted Newsom as well.

“We shouldn’t be seeing this,” Darvish told Sky News as they surveyed some of the damage from what she called an “apocalypse.”

She went on to suggest that she felt the leaders of L.A. and California were unprepared to face disaster, which called for someone made of tougher stuff, she said.

“This is where people need to wake up,” Darvish told Sky News. “Because if you’re voting and you’re picking people for softness or for the fuzzy feeling they got because they seem like they’re good people — I want to know that we’re going to have someone in charge.”

After seeing the governor, Darvish and her crew stopped and she soon went right up to Newsom to press him about the steps she felt he needed to take to help the victims of the fires.

“Governor, I live here. … That was my daughter’s school, governor,” she said, pointing out a destroyed part of the Palisades nearby.

Newsom extended his sympathy and apologies and said he was working on getting resources to people in need.

“I’m literally talking to the president right now to specifically answer the question of what we can do for you and your daughter,” he said, after which Darvish said she didn’t “believe” him and wanted to see his call with Joe Biden.

Newsom said he was having trouble connecting with the president because of poor cell service. He said his focus was on reimbursements and direct assistance for fire victims.

“I’m so sorry, especially for your daughter,” he said.

Darvish continued to share her distress at the situation.

“Everyone who went to school there, they lost their homes,” she said.

“Governor please tell me what are you going to do with the president right now,” she went on to say.

“We’re getting the resources to help rebuild,” Newsom told her.

“Is it going to be different next time?” Darvish asked.

“It has to be, of course,” he said.

When Darvish said that she would personally help fill water hydrants — referring to reports of hydrants running dry earlier in the week, which officials blamed on drained water tanks and a temporary loss of water pressure because of high demand — Newsom said he would help, too.

“I would do whatever I can–“ he started to say, before she cut him off.

“But you’re not!”

The moment has generated widespread attention online. One video of it has generated more than 600,000 views.

Since the fires started burning in L.A. early on Tuesday, Jan. 7, tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee from their homes.

There have been at least 10 fire-related fatalities so far, according to the L.A. County medical examiner, although officials have cautioned that the true death toll remains unclear.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Newsom pointed to his work with the White House to get federal aid.

“I also just spoke with Rachel and I’m working to connect her with recovery services, local support, and provide the latest information,” the spokesperson, Izzy Gordon, said.

“Her entire community has been decimated,” Gordon said of Darvish. “She doesn’t know if her home is still standing. Her children’s schools are gone. The horrors of this fire are simply beyond scale.”

Gordon went on to say that the governor’s office was “looking into” the issue with supplying the water hydrants this week.

Newsom has said on social media that, more broadly, “many of the state’s largest reservoirs are currently at or above their historic average storage levels for this time of year.”

While some people are asking questions about and criticizing the emergency response, wondering if more could have been done to curb the catastrophe, the L.A. fires have been worsened by environmental factors, too, according to experts.

Severe winds helped fuel the fires, which were also able to feed on extensive and dry vegetation in the area, after recent years of heavier rains.

“This was not a normal blaze,” Gordon, the governor’s spokesperson, said. “When this fire began, firefighters were battling flames fueled by 100mph hurricane-force winds against them.”