Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kristin Crowley said Friday on CNN’s “The Lead” that deep budget cuts have “absolutely negatively impacted” the department’s ability to fight devastating wildfires in Southern California.
Host Jake Tapper said, “There are a lot of questions from the public about whether fire department budget cuts and related decisions have affected your department’s ability to fight fires? “Is that true, have those decisions harmed your ability to do that?”
“I want to be very, very clear,” Crowley said. Yes, we have had a $17 million budget cut and as we know, any budget cut will negatively impact our ability to accomplish our mission. I also want to make it clear that I am not a politician, I am a public servant. As the Fire Chief of the Los Angeles City Fire Department, it’s my job to make sure our firefighters have exactly what they need to do their jobs. And that’s why I’m talking to you today. The Palisades fire, everybody’s seen it, it’s one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles. Even with an extra 100 engines, I tell you, we were not going to catch that fire. But with that being said, let me clarify. The $17 million budget cut and elimination of our civilian positions, as have our mechanics, has and will continue to severely impact our ability to repair our systems. So with that, we have over 100 fire apparatus out of service. And keeping these devices in a reasonable amount of mechanics would have helped and hence had absolutely a negative impact.
Tapper asked, “Is that something, given that you now have this audience and you can talk to not only Mayor Bass, but Governor Newsom and President Biden and incoming President Trump? What do you want right now? I mean, the country wants you to have everything you need to stop these fires. What do you want right now?”
“We need to be fully funded and supported so our firefighters can do their jobs,” Crowley said. The additional resources coming will help us deal with this current crisis. But moving forward, that capacity could be anywhere throughout the city of Los Angeles. And we need to be fully funded and supported.
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