Mayor Karen Bass expels fire department fire chief Kristin Crowley on Friday The deadly fire Been processed.
Bass said she has decided “for the sake of public safety in Los Angeles and the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department” “for the best interest. ”
“We know that the 1,000 firefighters who may be on duty in the morning were sent back to Chief Crowley’s watch,” the mayor said in a statement.
The mayor said Crowley’s dismissal took effect immediately.
The bass also quoted Crowley’s “action report on the fire” after the fire committee chair told the fire to do so.
“The chief refused,” Bass said. “These demanded her to be removed.”
Crowley did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Bass appointed Ronnie Villanueva, former LAFD’s former deputy deputy deputy deputy deputy deputy vice president, as interim director.
Crowley, a 22-year veteran of the department, was appointed Fire Chief in 2022. She is the first woman and first LGBTQ head in the department, which has about 3,750 members.
Crowley was asked In an interview with LA TV station KTTV Last month, if the city fails to pass the LAFD. “Yes,” she replied.
Crowley said in that interview that the fire department was underfunded and that if the proper funding was obtained, the LAFD would prepare for better Palisade fires.
“I do believe that if we’ve set ourselves properly over the last three years, we’re going to be in a better position in the city where we lose our homes and die. ”
The bass has reduced the LAFD budget by about $17.8 million and has denied that it has any impact on firefighting during wildfires.
“There is no reduction in the reduction that will affect the situation we’ve dealt with in the past few days,” Bass said last month.
Crowley said she had to make some “hard decisions” about firefighters’ duties in non-emergency situations due to the budget. But she added that the department is working with the bass.
“We made adjustments. We are working closely with Mayor Beth. She supports us,” Crowley said last month as the fire broke out.
For weeks, the bass has been facing questions about why she attended President John Mahama’s inauguration during a fire in Ghana.
In her first sit-down interview since the fire, she defended her decision to travel and told Los Angeles Exit KABC this week that she hadn’t warned them correctly.
“Honestly, if I have all the information I need to have, then the last thing I have to do is not in town,” she told KABC.
Her office also issued a statement to the Los Angeles Times this week, more explicitly blaming Crowley.
A spokesman for the mayor’s office told the New York Times: “In other major weather emergencies, the mayor or mayor at least, the mayor’s chief of staff – has received a direct call from the fire chief, marking the seriousness of the situation. ” “This time, this call will never come.”
The catastrophic fire was fed by the intense Santa Ana wind, and saw speed in the hurricane, killing at least 29 people.
According to Fire, the Palisades Fire ripped off the coast, destroyed communities, burned 23,448 acres, destroyed 6,837 buildings and damaged 1,017 buildings. This is formal Completely included On January 31, it started for three weeks.
Another huge fire, the Eaton Fire, was also blown by the wind, passing through the Altadna and Pasadena areas of Los Angeles County. It destroyed 9,418 structures and damaged 1,073, many of which were century-old houses in Altadena, and then Completely included It’s January. 31.
Officials say the fires and hurricane winds are one of the worst natural disasters in Los Angeles’ history.
