LA mayor sacks fire chief in wake of devastating wildfires

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said on Friday that she had removed Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley, citing her response to devastating wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes and caused billions of dollars in damage.

They were the worst fires in Los Angeles history.

“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,” Bass said in a statement. “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."

In addition, according to Bass, Crowley refused to prepare a report on the fires that had been requested by the president of the city’s fire commission as part of an investigation.

“The heroism of our firefighters – during the Palisades fire and every single day – is without question,” Bass said. “Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs.”

The fraught relationship between the mayor and the fire chief burst into the open on Jan. 10, while fires were still raging.

Crowley went on local and national television to complain about purported budget cuts that she said left the fire department ill-prepared to respond. At the time, an unprecedented firestorm was tearing through the ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood, fanned on by extreme Santa Ana winds.

Bass was likewise criticized for traveling to Ghana on a presidential delegation just days before the fires erupted on Jan. 7. The National Weather Service had already warned about the high risk of wildfires in Southern California. The most intense Santa Ana winds in more than a decade were expected to hit the region, whipping hot desert air toward the coast.

Crowley failed to warn her about the risk of wildfires before she left for Ghana, Bass has said.

It was disappointing that Bass had decided to fire Crowley, real-estate developer Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Bass in 2022, said on X, formerly Twitter.

“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,” Caruso wrote. “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.”

Fire erupted on Jan. 7 in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent neighborhood at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the ocean, and in Altadena, an eclectic enclave nestled against the San Gabriel Mountains east of downtown LA. Altadena is outside LA city limits and therefore wasn’t under Crowley’s command.

Those fires would prove to be the most devastating wildfires in the city’s history, parching canyons, destroying neighborhoods and causing an estimated $250 billion in economic damage.

The Palisades Fire burned more than 23,400 acres, destroyed close to 7,000 structures and killed 12 people. The Eaton Fire that tore through Altadena burned more than 14,000 acres, destroyed over 9,400 structures and killed 17 people. It’s the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, and rebuilding devastated parts of the city will likely take years.

Pacific Palisades has many celebrity residents. Some lost their homes, including Anthony Hopkins and Paris Hilton. Altadena is less glamorous and more diverse. Visiting Los Angeles last week, President Donald Trump toured the destruction in the Palisades but skipped Altadena.

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