Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kristin Crowley was fired by Mayor Karen Bass Friday after failing to send firefighters to the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Mayor Bass said in a statement Friday that, under Crowley’s supervision, 1,000 firefighters were sent home while fires raged around Los Angeles, killing 29 people and destroying thousands of homes.
“We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch,” Bass said in the statement. “Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal.”
Bass has been under scrutiny herself since the fires first broke out in January, having been in Africa while much of the city was engulfed in flames. Bass cut the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget by $17.6 million for fiscal year 2024 to 2025 and spent thousands of dollars on woke businesses (RELATED: CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN’: The Dark, Painful American Tragedy At The Heart Of LA’s Apocalyptic Downfall)
Bass recently announced that her trip to Africa while Los Angeles burned is being investigated by her own office. “But I will tell you that I felt absolutely terrible about not being here for my city and not being here for my family who was impacted by the fires as well,” the mayor continued. “So when I say it was a mistake, absolutely, the idea that I was not present was very painful,” Bass said during an interview with Fox 11.
Bass initially provided no answer regarding her overseas trip when Sky News reporter David Blevins confronted her on whether she owes an apology to her constituents.
Crowley is a staunch supporter of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and supported an internal “racial equity plan,” which states that the [LAFD] is a stronger organization for focusing on the physical characteristics of its personnel.
Bass named an LAFD veteran Ronnie Villanueva as the interim Fire Chief to replace Crowley.
“While the Department is in the experienced and expert hands of Chief Villanueva, my office will lead a national search and I will speak directly with firefighters and Angelenos about what they want to see in their next permanent chief,” Bass said.
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