Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fired the city’s fire chief, Kristin Crowley, after a public dispute between them over the fire department’s readiness before the Palisades Fire. Watch the announcement from Friday, Feb. 21, 2025.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass removed LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley Friday following weeks of tensions that mounted over preparations for the January windstorm and deadly Los Angeles wildfires.
The back-and-forth between the mayor and chief began in the days after the fires started on Jan. 7, when Bass was on an overseas trip, and intensified this week with Bass' claims that Crowley did not warn her in advance about the high winds that fanned the Palisades and Eaton wildfires. The windstorm was widely expected and publicized days in advance of when the fires started in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
The mayor issued a statement Friday ahead of a news conference announcing her decision to remove Crowley.
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"Acting in the best interests of Los Angeles’ public safety, and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have removed Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief," Bass said. "We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch.
"Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal. The heroism of our firefighters – during the Palisades fire and every single day – is without question. Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs.”
Former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, a 41-year LAFD veteran, will serve as interim fire chief.
The LAFD declined to comment Friday on the chief's removal.
The firing drew a strong rebuke from Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who said she was "outraged" by the move.
"I am outraged by the scapegoating revealed by the Mayor's actions," Rodriguez said. "I plan to use my authority as a Councilmember to set the record straight and encourage Chief Crowley to appeal the Mayor's baseball termination to the City Council. The public deserves a full account of every single leadership failure that has taken place."
The mayor's office released a statement later Friday, indicating that Crowley will remain with the department at a lower rank.
"Following Mayor Bass' removal of Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief, the Mayor’s Office was informed that she has exercised her Civil Service rights to stay with the Fire Department at a lower rank," the mayor's office said. "Her duties will be assigned by Interim Chief Villanueva."
In the days before the Jan. 7 fires, Los Angeles meteorologists, the National Weather Service and others repeated public warnings of the potentially life-threatening wind event, which whipped flames that morning in Pacific Palisades. The Palisades Fire on the Los Angeles County coast burned down entire neighborhoods and went on to become the ninth deadliest and third-most destructive wildfire on record in California.
In a statement to NBC4 this week, the LAFD fired back at Bass, insisting that the department followed all standard preparation procedures.
"Prior to the Palisades Fire, the LAFD emailed two separate media advisories, conducted multiple live and recorded media interviews about the predicted extreme fire weather, and notified City Officials about the upcoming weather event," the agency said.
Crowley, the first woman to lead the LAFD, and Bass engaged in a public spat as the fires burned. Crowley, elevated to Los Angeles fire chief in 2022 at a time of turmoil in a department consumed by complaints of rampant hazing, harassment and discrimination among its 3,400-member ranks, criticized the city for budget cuts that she said have made it harder for firefighters to do their jobs.
Bass has said that the budget cuts did not have an impact on the LAFD’s response to the wildfires.
Crowley's comments and perceived falling-out with Bass prompted so much speculation about her job security that the union issued a statement at the time, assuring rank-and-file members that she had not been fired.
Bass, who was in Ghana as part of a Biden Administration delegation, has admitted taking that trip during the anticipated windstorm was a mistake.
"Yeah, absolutely," Bass said in an interview with NBCLA's Conan Nolan. "There is no question about that."
The criticism mounted as Bass returned from the trip Jan. 8. At the time, she said, "Although I was not physically here, I was in contact with many of the individuals that are standing here throughout the entire time. I was on the phone, on the plane, almost every hour of the flight."
Questions also were raised about city and fire department preparations in the days ahead of the Santa Ana windstorm that fanned the fires. The fire department did not hold over its firefighters who’d worked the day before to increase staffing during the wind event that had been forecast.
City officials have agreed there are a number of decisions that will need to be scrutinized, such as why it appears extra engines had not been positioned in the Palisades and why more firefighters were not ordered to stay on duty.
Crowley described the decisions were part of a balancing act, to prepare for a potential fire without knowing where in the city it would start while also managing the thousands of routine calls that come in.
Crowley has been with the LAFD for about 25 years, working her way up through the ranks of the department as a
firefighter, paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain, battalion chief, assistant chief, deputy chief and chief deputy before earning the top job.
She served as commander of Battalion 13 in South Los Angeles and Battalion 6 in San Pedro, and also worked in the agency's Professional Standards Division, Fire Prevention and Public Safety Bureau and Administrative Operations.
She directed youth fire academies in the Harbor and Valley areas, a program that trains local high school students on the fundamentals of becoming a firefighter.
Crowley also served as an executive board member for the Chief Officers' Association and The Women in Fire Service.
Interim Chief Villanueva spoke at Friday's news conference alongside the mayor.
"I pledge to the people that the Los Angeles Fire Department will be prepared," Villanueva said. "The Los Angeles Fire Department respond. The Los Angeles Fire Department will keep you safe.
"The love that I have for this department is why I'm coming back in this capacity."
