LA Fire Chief is dismissed by Mayor Karen Bass after lashing out over department cuts as deadly blazes devastate city

Kristin Crowley, chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, was fired by Mayor Karen Bass on Friday afternoon, a source close to the chief’s office told DailyMail.com.

“Kristin was summoned by Bass this afternoon around 4 p.m. She returned from that meeting, hugged her staff goodbye and left. She said she was fired,” the source said.

The alleged ramp-up comes after Crowley lashed out against the mayor’s budget cuts to her department in an interview with a local Fox TV station around noon Friday.

“My message is that the fire department needs to be properly funded,” the chief said. “It’s not that.”

“Did they abandon you?” Fox LAs Gigi Graciette asked. “Yes,” Crowley replied.

The LAFD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tensions between Bass and Crowley were already reaching a boiling point before Tuesday’s disastrous fires broke out.

The mayor pushed through $17.6 million in cuts through a recent council vote, prompting Crowley to write her a memo on Dec. 4 warning that the slash “will reduce the department’s ability to prepare for, respond to, lead for and respond to large-scale emergencies, severely limited’. forest fires.’

And DailyMail.com exclusively revealed a second LAFD memo written this Monday, the day before the Palisades Fire started, detailing another $49 million in cuts Bass allegedly demanded.

In shocking statements to Fox LA on Friday, Crowley said she was not informed that the Santa Ynez Reservoir in the Palisades had been empty and offline for weeks under scheduled maintenance by the LA Department of Water and Power (DWP).

On Friday, DailyMail.com revealed that LAFD insiders blamed DWP CEO Janisse Quiñones for scheduling reservoir cover repairs during wildfire season, and for failing to repair a large number of fire hydrants that they said were already were broken for years, including in the Palisades.

[LINK https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14272399/LA-water-chief-Janisse-Quinones-fire-hydrants-reservoir-failures-Palisades.html ]

Crowley also appeared to point the finger at DWP for running out of water to provide firefighters to tackle the blaze this week.

“We didn’t know,” she said, referring to the empty reservoir. ‘I don’t know how the water gets to the fire hydrants. Please suggest this to DWP.

“My job is to stand up and say, rightly so, exactly what the fire department needs,” the chief added.

“When a firefighter comes to a hydrant, we expect there to be water. We have no control over the water supply. We are here to protect lives and property.

She said her firefighters “did absolutely everything they could do to save people’s lives and property.”

In an extraordinary public airing of grievances, Crowley acknowledged to a reporter KTV that the city, and by extension Mayor Bass, abandoned its residents during the wildfires.

When pressed several times if the city had failed, Crowley’s response was a firm, “Yes.”

The stark admission sent shockwaves through the city, as Crowley detailed the dire state of her department.

Years of budget cuts, she said, had left the LAFD suffering crippling staff shortages, outdated equipment and insufficient resources; issues that she said had been repeatedly brought to the city’s attention.

“Since day one, we have identified huge gaps in our service delivery and our ability for our fire boots on the ground to do their job,” Crowley said.

“This is my third budget as we move into the 2025-2026 period, and what I can tell you is that we are still understaffed, we are still under-resourced and we are still under-funded.”

Crowley painted a grim picture of the department’s daily operations, revealing that under normal circumstances, firefighters handle more than 1,500 calls and transport 650 patients every day. The wildfires have only exacerbated these problems.

“We are crying out for adequate funding to ensure our firefighters can do their jobs so we can serve the community,” Crowley said.

‘This is not a new problem. It’s been a problem for years. And it’s time for it to be fixed.”

Despite its repeated warnings and detailed memos outlining the department’s needs, the city has cut the LAFD’s budget by more than $17 million in recent years.

The result, Crowley said, was predictable: slower response times and a reduced ability to fight the increasing frequency and intensity of fires.

“Any cuts will impact our ability to provide service,” she explained. ‘If there were cuts, we had to source from somewhere else. What does that mean? That doesn’t happen or there are delays.’

Crowley’s criticism extends beyond the immediate crisis and points to a systemic failure to scale firefighting capabilities alongside the city’s explosive growth.

“We know we need 62 new fire stations. We need to double the size of our firefighters,” she said. “The growth of this city has doubled since 1960 and we have fewer fire stations.”

The fire chief called out city officials for ignoring “real data” that supported the fire department’s repeated requests for more funding.

“When you’re talking about sounding the alarm and requesting and requesting budgets that are easily justified based on the data, real data shows what the fire service needs to serve this beautiful city and the beautiful community we serve swore we would. That’s what it’s all about.’

Crowley’s comments were not only a criticism, but also a heartfelt plea for immediate and sustained action.

Stressing the non-political nature of her role, she said: “None of us in the fire service are politicians. We are civil servants first and foremost. We took an oath to serve the public, before ourselves and even before our families.

“What our people need to do their jobs is to make sure we can save lives and protect property as best we can,” Crowley said. “But we need to be funded properly. And that’s where my head is.’

Bass has yet to respond to Crowley’s blistering criticism, but the consequences are already clear.

Accusations of negligence and a failure to prioritize public safety have fueled growing discontent among residents, many of whom are reeling from the devastation caused by the wildfires.