Source: Breitbart | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
LOS ANGELES, California — L.A. Mayor Karen Bass fired L.A. Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley on Friday, claiming that she failed to pre-deploy firefighters ahead of the Palisades Fire and refused to allow an investigation.
A press statement from the mayor’s office said:
“Acting in the best interests of Los Angeles’ public safety, and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have removed Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief,” Mayor Bass said. “We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch. Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal. The heroism of our firefighters – during the Palisades fire and every single day – is without question. Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs.”
Bass has appointed retired former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva to act as interim head of the L.A. Fire Department, pending a national search for a replacement candidate.
Earlier this week, Bass claimed that Chief Crowley did not give her adequate warning about the risk of a major fire, though Bass herself had posted on social media about the risk. Bass was overseas in Ghana at the time of the fire.
Several days after the fire on January 7, Crowley blamed budget cuts for her department’s struggle to contain the fire. Bass had cut nearly $20 million from the city fire budget, especially on operational supplies and overtime expenses.
The firing marks the first time any public official has been held accountable for the blaze, which burned nearly 24,000 acres and destroyed nearly 7,000 structures. However, Bass herself has refused to resign or apologize.
Update: Developer Rick Caruso, who ran against Bass in 2022, panned her decision to fire Crowley, saying that the fire chief had been courageous in talking about the problem of budget cuts, and panning Bass for passing the buck:
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
