Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fired the Chief of the Palisades fire to Kristin Crowley.
“Practicing in the best interest of public safety in Los Angeles, and the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have placed Kristin Crowley as fire chief,” Bass said in a statement Friday. “We Knowing that 1,000 firefighters who could have caught fire in the morning were sent home to Chief Crowley’s watch. “
“In addition, the Chairman of the Fire Commission told Chief Crowley to report on action to take on the fire. The Chief refused. These needed her to remove,” the bass continued. “The heroism of our firefighters is undoubtedly in the Palisades fire and every day of fire. Our city needs to bring new leadership to the fire department.”
LAFD did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Crowley’s dismissal.
The tension between Beth and Crowley can be traced back at least to the days after the fire broke out.
On January 10, when the Palisades fire was still out of control, Crowley conducted an extraordinary TV interview and told Fox 11 Reporter, the city of Los Angeles and her The hint of boss Bass – made her and her department fail.
She went on to describe her institution as understaffed and underfunded, saying that the situation is no longer sustainable.
Later that day, Crowley was equally strong at CNN’s Jake Tapper, telling him that the fire department lacked enough mechanisms to repair broken emergency vehicles.
When Tapper asked if the City’s budget cuts the agency’s ability to fight wildfires, she replied: “I want to be very, very clear. Yes.”
A few hours later, Crowley was called to the mayor’s office. The closed-door meeting took so long that the bass didn’t appear at her own afternoon wildfire emergency press conference.
After that episode, Crowley and Bass continued to appear together in the press conference and said they were focused on the fire and recovery.
The mayor and her team then made a series of statements to reporters this week suggesting that Crowley didn’t tell Bass the severity of the fire risk, a serious warning of the strong winds, and then Bass went overseas to Africa.
On January 7, when the fire broke out, the mayor was in Ghana. She returned the next day but was criticized for her absence.
Bass spokesman Zach Seidl told The Times that Crowley usually calls it the mayor or her team before bad weather events, but not until January 7 Do this.
Bass also told reporters in two TV interviews this week that she had not received enough information about the weather. She said she would cancel the trip if anything.
Mayor Eric Garcetti selected Crowley to lead the department in 2022, and she was the first female leader in her history. She was promoted as female firefighters talked about the department’s patterns of sexual harassment and deception.
