Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said the city of Los Angeles had failed its more than 100,000 displaced residents who were forced to evacuate because of the wildfire siege.
When asked by Fox News affiliate KTTV if the city of Los Angeles and its mayor, Karen Bass, have failed the city, Crowley replied, “Yes.”
Crowley said the emergency staffing shortage affected the department’s response time when the fire began to sweep through Los Angeles.
“Any budget cuts will affect our ability to provide services,” she said. “That’s the fundamental truth in terms of our capabilities. If there’s a budget cut, we’ve had to pull from somewhere else. What does that mean? That’s not being achieved or that there are delays.”
LA FIRE ISSUES ALARM ABOUT BUDGET CUTS AFFECTING WILDFIRE RESPONSE: NOTE
Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley speaks during a news conference at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center in the West Carson area of Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Richard Vogel/AP)
Crowley said the lack of staff and resources is a pressing issue facing the ward for years. She pointed to a series of letters she sent to the city that identified the department’s needs in detail.
“From day one we identified huge gaps in our service delivery and the ability of our fire boots on the ground to do their job from day one,” she said. “This is my third budget as we go into 2025-2026, and what I can tell you is we’re still understaffed, we’re still under-resourced and we’re still under-funded.”
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When asked how the budget cuts, which reduced the budget by $17,553,814 from $837,191,237 to $819,637,423, Crowley said they “impacted our ability to provide services.”
“On a normal day, our firefighters have more than 1,500 calls, and they are transports 650 patients day – let alone the last three days of what we had,” she said.
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The problems facing the fire department “are not a new problem,” Crowley told the local newspaper.
“The number of calls our firefighters are making today has doubled since 2010, a 55% increase with 68 fewer people. Full transparency. This is not a new problem for us,” she said. “From the three years I’ve been in that place, I’ve been sounding the alarm saying we need more.”
We are screaming to be well funded to make sure our firefighters can do their jobs….
“This is no longer sustainable. With that, we are now in a position to be properly financed” she said. “We’re screaming to be properly funded to make sure our firefighters can do their jobs so we can serve the community.”
A firefighter puts out a fire during the Eaton fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Altadena, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Crowley said the department has identified service gaps and sent recommendations to the city.
“We know we need 62 new fire stations. We need to double the number of our firefighters. The growth of this city has doubled since 1960 and we have fewer fire stations,” she said.
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“So when you talk about sounding the alarm and asking for budgets that can be easily justified based on the data, the real data shows what firefighters need to serve this wonderful city and the wonderful community we’re sworn to serve. That’s what it’s about,” she said. is.
Speaking from the heart, Crowley said, “None of us in the fire department are politicians.”
“Firefighters are there to serve them first and foremost. Again, none of us in the fire department are politicians. We are civil servants first,” she said. “We swore to serve the public before ourselves, and even before our families.”
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“With that, I want to focus on the way forward. I want to focus on what the LAFD needs,” Crowley said. “What our people need to do their jobs is to make sure we can save lives and protect property as much as possible.”
“But we have to be adequately funded,” she said. “And there’s my head.”
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
