Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sacks fire chief who said city failed residents in wildfires

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Friday announced that LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley had been fired. 

Crowley had criticized Bass and other Democratic leadership with the city, claiming it had failed its 100,000 residents displaced during January’s wildfires. 

Crowley said in January that pressing staffing shortages impacted the department's response time when the blaze began tearing across Los Angeles.

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"Any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service," Crowley said at the time. "That is a ground truth in regard to our ability. If there's a budget cut, we had to pull from somewhere else. What does that mean? That doesn't get done or that there are delays."

Crowley said that staffing shortages and lack of resources have been a pressing issue facing the LAFD for years. She pointed to a series of memos she sent to the city identifying in detail the needs of the department.

"Since day one, we've identified huge gaps in regard to our service delivery and our ability of our firefighters' boots on the ground to do their jobs since day one," she said. "This is my third budget as we're going into 2025-2026, and what I can tell you is we are still understaffed, we're still under-resourced and we're still underfunded."

Bass has appointed former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, a 41-year LAFD veteran, as interim fire chief. 

In a statement Friday, she said: "Acting in the best interests of Los Angeles’ public safety, and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have removed Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief. 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. 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. The heroism of our firefighters – during the Palisades fire and every single day – is without question. Bringing new leadership to the fire department is what our city needs." 

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In a noon press conference on Friday, Bass also denied cutting the department's budget, reiterating that Crowley had been fired because 1,000 firefighters had been sent home on the first day of the fires on Jan. 7 and that she had later refused to do an after-action report.

"These actions required her removal," she added. 

"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," she said in a statement. 

After a reporter asked why Bass didn't fire Crowley immediately in January, she answered that she "was not going to do anything while we were in a state of emergency." 

She said that she had always been briefed by Crowley about previus emergencies, but claimed Crowley had not briefed her this time, saying that they didn't speak until the evening of Jan. 7, after the fires had been raging for hours. 

Bass was on a trip to Ghana at the time, which she has been criticized. 

"Los Angeles needs to move forward. This is a new day," Bass said. "We want to have the full investigation that the governor has ordered and the investigation that we will do locally." 

She also said at the press conference that the Palisades Fire recovery is "months ahead of schedule." 

"We have just experienced the worst natural disaster that our city has ever experienced," Bass said, adding that it will take time to recover.

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Republican Rick Caruso, who ran against Bass in the last mayoral election, criticized Crowley’s firing. 

"It is very disappointing that Mayor Bass has decided to fire Chief Kristin Crowley," he wrote on X. "Chief Crowley served Los Angeles well and spoke honestly about the severe and profoundly ill-conceived budget cuts the Bass administration made to the LAFD. That courage to speak the truth was brave, and I admire her. Honesty in a high city official should not be a firing offense. The Mayor's decision to ignore the warnings and leave the city was hers alone. This is a time for city leaders to take responsibility for their actions and their decisions. We need real leadership, not more blame passing."