The apocalyptic fires raging in Los Angeles are thousands of miles from Boston, but the nightmare scenario offers valuable lessons for city leaders here.

As in Boston, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed off on a budget for the new fiscal year last summer. It cut the fire department’s budget by $17.5 million, according to a graphic shared on X  by LA  City Controller Kenneth Mejia.

Who were some budget winners? “Library” funding, which rose $14.6 million, and “cannabis regulation,” which increased by $1.8 million.

Hopefully, LA libraries will be largely spared by the massive fires, but at this point, who can say?

Bass, who was in Africa for the Ghana president’s inauguration, did praise firefighters and other emergency crews for working “overnight to protect Angelenos affected by fires.”

No thanks to the Democratic mayor.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone revealed an estimated 1,000 structures had been lost. There was also a “high number of people who didn’t evacuate” who suffered serious injuries, he said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said that California had deployed more than 1,400 firefighters to help combat the blazes.

“Emergency officials, firefighters, and first responders are all hands on deck through the night to do everything possible to protect lives,” Newsom said in a post on X.

The Boston City Council also had the fire department on the chopping block last summer. Not for the millions slashed by Bass, but $734,999, the Herald reported. Still, it was the wrong direction to take for a vital city service. Fortunately, we haven’t seen the kind of wildfires as the West Coast, but we’ve had our share of catastrophic fires. This is not an area in which to skimp.

Firefighters save lives.

Mayor Michelle Wu is no Karen Bass, thank goodness, and vetoed the city council’s budget cuts. This may come up again in a few months, when the 2025-2026 budget is on the table. Los Angeles’ mismanagement should be a what-not-to-do guide for us.

As should the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans, and not just for the lack of street barriers that would have protected pedestrians.

The annual hand-wringing over the $12 million federal counter-terrorism grant for the region has to stop. Debate heated up again this year as immigration and civil rights advocates demanded the council delay a vote, citing fears around surveillance and President-elect Trump’s mass deportation plan.

Last year, the council blocked action on the annual grant twice before finally approving the $13 million award in late January.

The money goes towards training and operational needs to “help prevent, respond to and recover from threats of terrorism, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive incidents.”

As terror threats remain, and as we saw in New Orleans, sometimes play out, safety must No. 1 on Boston’s agenda.

Perhaps cutting the fire department budget and boosting the library seemed like a good idea to Los Angeles leaders. Maybe those who sought delays on the anti-terrorism grant believed Boston and surrounding communities aren’t in harm’s way. Perhaps they forgot about the Marathon Bombing.

Bostonians haven’t.

As we’ve learned in NoLa and LA, mistakes can be fatal. Hopefully, lessons will be learned.

Editorial cartoon by Steve Breen (Creators Syndicate)