Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fired town’s first lesbian hearth chief Friday, simply over a month after a number of wildfires tore by way of Southern California.
Bass introduced she “met with and eliminated Kristin Crowley” as town’s hearth chief and appointed former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, a 41-year Los Angeles Hearth Division veteran, as interim hearth chief.
In an announcement Friday, Bass cited two fundamental causes for Crowley’s elimination.
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“We all know that 1,000 firefighters that would have been on responsibility on the morning the fires broke out have been as a substitute despatched dwelling on Chief Crowley’s watch,” stated Bass. “Moreover, a needed step to an investigation was the President of the Hearth Fee telling Chief Crowley to do an after motion report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her elimination.”
The mayor — who was on a diplomatic journey to Africa when the fires broke out — stated her workers would conduct a “nationwide search” for town’s subsequent hearth chief in addition to “converse straight with firefighters and Angelenos about what they wish to see of their subsequent everlasting chief.”
The heroism of our firefighters — through the Palisades hearth and each single day — is with out query,” Bass added. “Bringing new management to the fireplace division is what our metropolis wants.”
Officers say 29 folks have been killed throughout the area after fast-moving wildfires fueled by drought circumstances and highly effective winds broke out on Jan. 7, leaving over 18,000 buildings destroyed or broken and forcing the evacuation of tens of hundreds of residents.
Crowley was tapped for the position in March 2022 and was town’s first feminine and LGBT-identified hearth chief. In line with the LAFD, Crowley’s priorities included “creating, supporting, and selling a tradition that values range, inclusion, and fairness whereas striving to satisfy and exceed the expectations of the communities.”
Earlier than being named chief, Crowley served as a battalion commander for 9 years, overseeing a number of divisions, and was the grand marshal of the 2024 LA pleasure parade.
In Dec. 2024, Crowley warned Bass that funds cuts “severely restricted the division’s capability to arrange for, practice for, and reply to large-scale emergencies, together with wildfires” — a warning with which Bass stated she disagreed.
In line with metropolis funds figures, the fireplace division’s funds was diminished regardless of rising issues over wildfire dangers and emergency response capabilities. In distinction, town’s police division noticed a $126 million improve in funding, as highlighted in a graphic shared by LA Metropolis Controller Kenneth Mejia.
Bass had initially proposed a good steeper reduce to the fireplace division’s funds, suggesting a $23 million discount earlier than finally selecting the $17.6 million determine.
Initially, when the fires broke out, Bass was in Ghana as a part of a four-member presidential delegation that attended the inauguration of John Dramani Mahama as Ghana’s president. She returned to town on Jan. 8 on a army aircraft and pledged to conduct a “full accounting of what labored and particularly what didn’t.”
