Questions about accountability over a lack of preparation after the deadly L.A. area wildfires devastated the region earlier this year are swirling around local leaders.
According to Cal Fire, the Palisades and Eaton Fires are two of the most destructive wildfires in California history, burning at least 37,000 acres and displacing thousands of residents.
On Friday, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass dismissed the city’s fire chief Kristin Crowley over how she handled the crisis. The mayor is facing backlash from those who say Bass should have done more.
Bass appeared to take accountability at a press conference, saying, “the buck stops with me. I am in charge,” while at the same time holding others responsible for the city’s unpreparedness.
The mayor said the former chief had failed to deploy 1,000 off-duty firefighters. However, a city ordinance states that in emergency preparedness and response, the mayor’s office is the director who issues and enforces “rules, regulations, orders,” including the deployment of additional personnel.
“We’re having a really hard time right now getting a comprehensive operational plan,” said councilwoman Traci Park, who represents what’s left of Pacific Palisades after it was ravaged by the fires.
When asked who is the head of the operation plan, Park said, “I think that’s one of the challenges that we’re having.”
KCAL News
Another councilwoman, Monica Rodriguez, is calling for Crowley to be reinstated.
Crowley, who was sworn into her role in 2022, will stay at the LAFD in a lower rank, the mayor’s office said Friday. Bass appointed former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva as interim fire chief.
Bass was on trip during wildfire threat
On Jan. 4, Bass left the U.S. and headed on a trip to Ghana to see the inauguration of its new president.
The National Weather Service Los Angeles issued a fire weather watch a day prior to the mayor’s departure on Jan. 3.
“A Fire Weather Watch is in effect Tuesday-Friday for portions of LA/Ventura Counties. There is the potential for damaging north to northeast winds that are likely to peak Tuesday-Wednesday,” the agency said in a post on X.
Bass landed in Ghana on Jan. 5. Later that day, a red flag warning was issued by the NWS. Bass landed back in Los Angeles on Jan. 8.
Bass has not yet clarified what she knew or when. Last month, she told CBS News that she regretted leaving to Ghana on a diplomatic trip, but last week, she downplayed the issue on local news.
On Fox 11, Bass said, “It didn’t reach that level to me, to say something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip.”
While Bass was out of the country, the acting mayor declared a local emergency around 5 p.m. on Jan. 7, nearly seven hours after the Palisades Fire first ignited, using a rarely implemented “full recall” of its personnel, which sources say the emergency declaration cleared the way for. CBS News has reached out to the mayor’s office, but has not heard back.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Reaction to Crowley’s firing
The United Firefighters of Los Angeles City president responded to Crowley’s firing, claiming she is a “scapegoat.”
“On behalf of the firefighters I represent, I am here to say we are outraged at the termination of fire Chief Crowley, period. In our opinion, Chief Crowley is being made a scapegoat, and she is being terminated for telling the truth,” union President Freddy Escobar said.
Over a month before the wildfires broke out, Crowley said budget cuts would impact her department’s efforts.
In a Dec. 4 memo, she wrote to the Board of Fire Commissioners that a reduction in overtime hours “severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies” and affected their capacity for brush clearance inspections and residential inspections.
When questioned, Bass previously said the budget cuts did not impact the fire department’s ability to respond to the January fires.
“There are many, many valid questions concerning the lead up to the fire, the actual fire and the response to the fire,” councilwoman Park said. “I think we have a long, long road ahead and I think there’s going to be a lot of accounting to do when we get those answers.”
