LA mayor sacks fire chief over handling of deadly blazes

Emergency vehicles are on the side of the road as flames from the Hughes Fire race up the hill in Castaic, a northwestern neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 22, 2025. A new wildfire erupted north of Los Angeles on January 22, exploding in size and sparking thousands of evacuation orders in a region already staggering from the effects of huge blazes.   (Agence France-Presse)

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sacked the city’s fire chief on Friday, blaming her for leadership failures in the handling of deadly blazes that tore through the California metropolis in January.

“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 (Kristen) Crowley’s watch,” Bass said in a statement.

“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,” Bass added.

“The Chief refused. These require her removal.”

The move comes after obvious tensions between the two women even as flames raged in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, killing at least 29 people and destroying thousands of buildings.

There was sharp criticism over the firefight, particularly in the tony Pacific Palisades area, where hydrants ran dry because of huge demands on the system.

But Bass, a former US congresswoman, was also the target of residents’ ire, after a flat-footed response to the fires, which broke out while she was abroad.