Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said that the City of Los Angeles has lost more than 100,000 residents who were forced to leave their homes because of the wildfires.
When asked by Fox News affiliate KTTV if the City of Los Angeles and its Mayor Karen Bass failed the city, Crowley replied: “Yes.”
Crowley said severe staffing shortages affected the department's response time when the fires began to tear through Los Angeles.
“Any cuts will affect our ability to provide services,” he said. “That's the basic truth about our ability. If there's a budget cut, we'd have to go somewhere else. What does that mean? That's not done or there's a delay.”
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Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley speaks during a news conference at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the West Carson neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Richard Vogel/AP)
Crowley said staff shortages and resource shortages have been pressing issues sector-specific for years. He pointed to a series of memos he sent to the city detailing the department's needs.
“From day one, we've noticed huge gaps in our service delivery and our ability to put firefighters' boots on the ground to do their jobs from day one,” he said. “This is my third budget as we enter 2025-2026, and what I can tell you is that we are still short of staff, we are still short of resources and money is still limited.
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When asked how the budget was cut, which reduced the budget by $17,553,814 from $837,191,237 to $819,637,423, Crowley said “it affected our ability to provide services.”
“On a typical day, our firefighters handle more than 1,500 calls, and they are to transport 650 patients per day – not to mention the last three days of what we've had,” he said.
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The problems facing the fire department “are not a new problem,” Crowley told the local outlet.
“The number of calls that firefighters use today has doubled since 2010, an increase of 55% and 68 fewer people. Full transparency. This is not a new problem for us,” he said. From the three years that I have been in office, I have cried that we need more.
We are calling for proper funding to ensure that firefighters can do their jobs…
“This is no longer stable. Therefore, we are now in a position to properly financed,” he said.
A firefighter puts out a fire during the Eaton fire on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, in Altadena, CA. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Crowley said the department has identified service gaps and sent recommendations in the city.
“We know we need 62 new fire stations. We need to double the size of our firefighters. The growth of this city since 1960 has doubled and we have fewer fire stations, ” he said.
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“So when you talk about sounding the alarm and asking and asking for funding that makes sense based on the facts, the facts show what the fire department needs to serve this great city and this great community. what we swore we would do. That's about it,” he said.
Speaking from the heart, Crowley said: “None of us in the fire department are politicians.”
“Firefighters are there to serve them, first and foremost. Also, none of us in the fire department are politicians. We are public servants “We took an oath to serve the community before ourselves and before our families.”
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“So with that, I want to focus on the way forward. I want to focus on what the LAFD needs,” Crowley said. “What our people need to do their jobs is to make sure that we can save lives and that we can protect property with great force.”
“But we need to be properly funded,” he said. “And that's where my head is at.”
Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.