LAFD chief slams city leadership for mishandling fire budget amid deadly wildfires: ‘Screaming to be properly funded’

Los Angeles Fire Chief Kirstin Crowley slammed the city’s leadership over its handling of the fire department’s budget as deadly wildfires continue to rip through Southern California.

During an interview with Fox News’ affiliate KTTV on Friday, Crowley was asked three consecutive times if LA Mayor Karen Bass failed the department and the thousands whose homes have either been destroyed or damaged since the devastating fires broke out Tuesday.

“Yes,” she responded.

“We are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community,” Crowley told the outlet.

“Since day one, we’ve identified huge gaps in regard to our service delivery and our ability of our firefighters’ boots on the ground to do their jobs since day one.”

Crowley said the department remains understaffed, underfunded and under-resourced, pressing that budget cuts will ultimately impact service.

“This is no longer sustainable,” she continued.

“So when you talk about sounding the alarm and asking and requesting budgets that are easily justifiable based off of the data, real data shows what the fire department needs to serve this beautiful city and the beautiful community that we swore that we would. That’s what that is about.”

Bass has faced scorching criticism over reports she cut the city’s fire department budget by $17.5 million ahead of this week’s vicious blazes — and that she was thousands of miles away in Africa celebrating Ghana’s presidential inauguration when they broke out.