OAN Staff Break Wolf
5:46pm – Friday, February 21st, 2025
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has announced that LAFD Fire Chief Christine Crowley has been fired “in the best interests of Los Angeles public safety.”
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“As I acted in the best interests of public safety in Los Angeles, and for the activities of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I removed Christine Crawley as fire chief. We could have been working in the morning. 1,000 firefighters know that instead they had a fire on Chief Crawley's watch,” Bass said.
“And the necessary step to the investigation was to tell Chief Crawley, the chairman of the fire committee and to have an action report on the fire. The chief refused. These require her removal. Our firefighter heroism is unquestionable every day with the Palisade fire. Bringing new leadership to the fire station is what our city needs.”
The announcement follows Crawley criticised the bass for lack of funding for the fire department, leading to a “lack of a blunt response” to multiple Los Angeles wildfires in January.
“Budget cuts affect our ability to serve,” Crawley essentially threw bass under the bass at the time. “That's the basic truth about our capabilities. If there was a budget cut, we had to pull from somewhere else. What does that mean? That's not over, or that there's a delay.”
“From day one, we identified a major gap in terms of service delivery and the ability of firefighter boots to work from day one,” she continued. “This is my third budget when we enter 2025-2026, and we are still understaffed, we are still underfunded, we are still underfunded .”
Mayor Bass has appointed former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva as interim fire chief. Villanueva has 41 years of experience with the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The finger pointing between the two city officials begins after the bus has traveled to Ghana for an overseas trip, later accusing Crowley of not warning her, leaving before the violent wind “stop her” prevented. Add to arson.
Despite Bass' claims that she was not known, LAFD “emailed two separate media advisories to multiple live and recorded media interviews about the forecast extreme fire weather. It was implemented and notified city authorities.”
Bass himself also admitted that going on a trip to Ghana was a mistake. NBC Affiliate, “Yeah, absolutely… there's no doubt about that.”
Meanwhile, Councilman Monica Rodriguez responded to the fire and expressed her “entrance.”
“We are furious at the scapegoating revealed by the mayor's actions,” Rodriguez said. “I plan to use my authority as a councillor to set the record straight and encourage Chief Crowley to appeal the mayor's baseball termination to the city council. The public is entitled to all leadership that has been carried out. It deserves a complete explanation of the failure.”
Rick Caruso, a Republican businessman who previously ran along the bus, expressed his disappointment at the shooting as well.
“It's a shame Mayor Bus has decided to fire Chief Christine Crowley,” he wrote in the X-Post. “Chief Crawley served Los Angeles well and honestly, the Base administration went to LAFD for severe and very inappropriate budget cuts. His courage to speak the truth is brave and I respect her. The integrity of Takaichi officials should not be the firer. She was the only mayor's decision to leave the city ignoring the warning. This is because the city leaders are the ones who have decided to do what they do and their decisions. It's time to take responsibility for us. We need true leadership and not a pass for more responsibility.”
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