As firefighters continued to battle massive wildfires Friday, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley stunned many observers with an extraordinary television interview.
Crowley, pressed by a Fox 11 reporter, said the city of Los Angeles — and by implication, her boss, Mayor Karen Bass — had failed her and her department. She went on to describe the Fire Department as understaffed and underfunded, saying the situation is “no longer sustainable.”
Hours later, Crowley was inside Bass’ office for a meeting so long that it intruded on the mayor’s nightly media briefing on the wildfires. Bass ultimately missed the briefing, where she had been billed as a featured speaker.
While one group of reporters waited for the briefing to start, another, smaller contingent camped outside the mayor’s office. Both parties received a jolt when the Daily Mail reported on its website that Bass had fired Crowley.
Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said that was not true. So did the Fire Department, which issued a statement saying that Bass’ and Crowley’s “foremost priorities continue to be fighting the current wildfires and safeguarding Angelenos.”
“It is important to note that the Fire Chief was not dismissed and is in full command of the LAFD,” said the statement, posted by spokesperson Erik Scott on X.
Crowley did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Times. She told her staff around 4 p.m. that she expected to be fired at her meeting with Bass, according to a source familiar with the discussion.
The developments only added to the sense of chaos surrounding this week’s devastating wildfires, which were in their fourth day and have destroyed portions of Pacific Palisades and Malibu as well as Altadena, an unincorporated area outside the city of Los Angeles, killing at least 11 people.
With Crowley’s remarks, tensions between her and Bass over Fire Department funding have exploded into the open.
Earlier in the week, Bass said budget cuts at the department did not affect the city’s response to the wildfires. Crowley on Friday contradicted that narrative, drawing a connection between reductions to her department’s operations and the struggle to beat back the wildfires.
Crowley was hired in 2022 by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti, becoming the first woman to run a department that has long struggled to recruit female firefighters. A department employee for more than two decades, she has been a frequent presence at news conferences this week, updating the media on firefighting efforts.
On Friday, Crowley took a more confrontational stance, using her media appearances to hammer home the idea that her department had gone with too little for too long.
“We can no longer sustain where we are. We do not have enough firefighters,” she told anchor Jake Tapper on CNN.
Crowley told Tapper that she has too few mechanics to repair broken-down vehicles. At one point, Tapper asked if budget cuts have hurt her agency’s ability to fight the fires.
“I want to be very, very clear. Yes. We took a $17-million budget cut,” she responded. “And as we know, any budget cut would negatively affect our ability to carry out our mission.”
Seidl did not comment on Crowley’s media appearances. But City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, who helps prepare the city budget, earlier in the week countered the idea that the Fire Department budget was cut this year. Once firefighter raises and vehicle purchases are factored in, the department’s budget will grow by more than 7%, he said.
Friday was not the first time Crowley voiced alarm about her department’s budget.
Last month, she sent a memo to Bass’ appointees on the Board of Fire Commissioners expressing serious concerns about the city’s decision to eliminate dozens of vacant non-firefighter positions at her agency.
In that memo, Crowley also expressed alarm over what she described as a $7-million reduction in overtime variable staffing hours, or “v-hours.” That cut, she said in the memo, “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.”
In the Fox 11 interview, Crowley went further, saying the department has not received the funding necessary to serve the city’s population. The department, she said, should double the number of firefighters and add 62 fire stations.
“The Fire Department needs to be funded appropriately so that I can look any community members in the eye and say, ‘Your LAFD’s got your back,’” she said.
“And right now you can’t?” Fox 11 reporter Gigi Graciette responded.
“Right now? No,” Crowley said. “And that’s why I’m here.”
City Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Pacific Palisades, praised Crowley for her job performance and her advocacy. Park, standing inside the city’s Emergency Operations Center on Friday, said the Fire Department has been the subject of “chronic, decades-long under-investment.”
“The issues that she is speaking to are really important,” she said.
Nearly an hour later, L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell gave the media briefing that Bass missed, discussing the curfew imposed on evacuation areas.
