Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley 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, about 4pm. She came back from that meeting, hugged her staff goodbye and left. She said she was fired,’ the source said.
The alleged booting follows Crowley lashing out against the Mayor’s cuts to her department, in an interview with a local Fox TV station around 12pm Friday.
‘My message is the fire department needs to be properly funded,’ the Chief said. ‘It’s not.’
‘Did they fail you?’ Fox LA’s Gigi Graciette asked. ‘Yes,’ Crowley replied.
The Fire Department (LAFD) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hours earlier, Chief Crowley delivered a scathing indictment of the Mayor Bass’s administration, exposing a crisis of funding, staffing, and readiness that she says left her department ill-equipped to face the catastrophe.
Chief Crowley delivered a swift rebuke on city leadership, raising questions about its preparedness in the face of the most destructive fire season in the history of LA that has displaced more than 100,000 residents.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley, pictured, was fired by Mayor Karen Bass on Friday afternoon, a source close to the chief’s office told DailyMail.com, hours after giving a frank interview to Fox LA
Crowley acknowledged to a reporter that the city, and by extension, Mayor Karen Bass, pictured, failed its residents during the wildfires
In an extraordinary public airing of grievances, Crowley acknowledged to a reporter with KTTV that the city, and by extension, Mayor Bass, failed its residents during the wildfires.
When pushed several times if the city had failed, Crowley’s response was unflinching: ‘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Years of budget cuts, she said, had left the LAFD grappling with crippling staffing shortages, outdated equipment, and insufficient resource – issues she claimed had been repeatedly brought to the city’s attention.
‘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,’ Crowley 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.’
Crowley painted a grim picture of the department’s daily operations, revealing that firefighters are handling more than 1,500 calls and transporting 650 patients every day under normal conditions. The wildfires have only exacerbated these challenges.
‘We are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community,’ Crowley said.
Cars are left charred inside a dealership in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire on Friday
‘This isn’t a new problem. It’s been a problem for years. And it’s time for it to be fixed.’
Despite her repeated warnings and detailed memos outlining the department’s needs, the city slashed the LAFD’s budget by over $17 million in recent years.
The result, Crowley said, was predictable: slower response times and a diminished capacity to combat the growing frequency and intensity of fires.
‘Any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service,’ she explained. ‘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’s criticism extends beyond the immediate crisis, pointing to a systemic failure to scale the fire department’s 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 since 1960 has doubled, and we have less fire stations.’
The fire chief called out city officials for ignoring ‘real data’ that supports the fire department’s repeated requests for increased funding.
‘When you talk about sounding the alarm and asking and requesting budgets that are easily justifiable based off of the data, real data shows what the fire department needs to serve this beautiful city and the beautiful community that we swore that we would. That’s what that is about.’
Crowley’s remarks were not just a critique but also a heartfelt plea for immediate and sustained action.
Emphasizing the non-political nature of her role, she said, ‘None of us on the fire department are politicians. We’re public servants first. 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 that we can save lives and that we can protect property to the greatest capacity,’ Crowley said. ‘But we need to be funded appropriately. And that’s where my head is at.’
Bass has yet to respond to Crowley’s blistering criticism, but the fallout is already apparent.
Accusations of negligence and failure to prioritize public safety have added fuel to mounting dissatisfaction among residents, many of whom are reeling from the devastation caused by the wildfires.
