Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Christine Crowley He said the city of Los Angeles has failed more than 100,000 displaced residents forced to evacuate from the ongoing wildfire siege.
When asked by Fox News affiliate KTTV whether the city of Los Angeles and Mayor Karen Bass had failed the city, Crowley responded: “Yes.”
Crowley said a pressing staffing shortage affected the department's response time when the fire began to sweep through Los Angeles.
She added: “Any budget cut will affect our ability to provide the service.” “This is a basic fact about our capacity. If there was a budget cut, we would have to pull somewhere else. What does that mean? It can't be done or there are delays.”
Fire alarm raised over budget cuts impacting bushfire response: memo
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Christine Crowley speaks during a news conference at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the West Carson area of Los Angeles on Thursday, February 15, 2024. (Richard Vogel/AP)
Crowley said staff shortages and lack of resources were a pressing issue Facing the section For years. She pointed to a series of memos she sent to the city detailing the department's needs.
“From day one, we identified significant gaps in terms of our service delivery and the ability of our firefighters on the ground to do their jobs from day one,” she said. “This is my third budget and we're heading into 2025-26, and what I can say is we're still understaffed, we're still underresourced, we're still underfunded.”
When asked how the budget cuts, which reduced the budget by $17,553,814 from $837,191,237 to $819,637,423, Crowley said it “really impacted our ability to provide service.”
“On a typical day, our firefighters field over 1,500 calls, and they are Transported 650 patients “One day — let alone the last three days of what we've been through,” she said.
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Crowley told the local outlet that the problems facing the fire department are “not a new problem.”
“The volume of calls our firefighters make today has doubled since 2010, a 55% increase with 68 fewer people. Complete transparency. This is not a new issue for us,” she said. “In my three years in this seat, I have sounded the alarm to say we need more.”
We are screaming for proper funding to make sure our firefighters can do their jobs…
“This is no longer sustainable. With this, we are now in a position to do so.” To be properly financed“We are screaming for proper funding to make sure our firefighters can do their jobs so we can serve the community,” she said.
A firefighter starts a fire during the Eaton Fire on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, in Altadena, California. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Crowley said the department identified gaps in service and sent recommendations To the city.
“We know we need 62 new fire stations. We need to double the size of our firefighters. This city has doubled in growth since 1960 and we have fewer fire stations,” she said.
Photo gallery: Barrier fire before and after
“So when you talk about sounding the alarm and asking and asking for budgets that can be easily justified based on data, real data showing what the fire department needs to serve this beautiful city and beautiful community that we swore we would do. And that's what it is,” she said.
“None of us in the fire department are political,” Crowley said, speaking from the heart.
“Firefighters are here to serve, first and foremost. And again, none of us in the fire department are political.” We are public servants “First,” she said, “we took an oath to serve the public, in front of ourselves and even in front of our families.”
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“So, I want to focus on the way forward. I want to focus on what LAFD needs,” Crowley said. “What our employees need to do to do their jobs is to make sure that we can save lives and that we can protect property as much as possible.”
“But we need proper funding,” she said. “And that's where my head is.”
Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
