Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley was fired by Mayor Karen Bass on Friday afternoon, a source close to the chief’s office told DailyMail.com.
‘Kristin was summoned by Bass this afternoon, about 4pm. She came back from that meeting, hugged her staff goodbye and left. She said she was fired,’ the source said.
The alleged booting follows Crowley lashing out against the Mayor’s cuts to her department, in an interview with a local Fox TV station around 12pm Friday.
‘My message is the fire department needs to be properly funded,’ the Chief said. ‘It’s not.’
‘Did they fail you?’ Fox LA’s Gigi Graciette asked. ‘Yes,’ Crowley replied.
The Fire Department (LAFD) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A second source close to Bass’ office told DailyMail.com that they were aware Crowley ‘was called to the office’ this afternoon, but did not know the outcome of the Mayor and Chief’s meeting.
A retired senior LAFD official told DailyMail.com that he was shocked by Crowley’s comments in her TV interview.
‘In my entire career, a fire chief has never thrown a mayor under the bus. It’s unbelievable, for her to go on the offensive like that,’ he said.
He added that amid fury over alleged failures in preparedness and in tackling the fires that leveled neighborhoods in Los Angeles this week, the city leaders are fearing for their positions and are starting to turn on each other.
‘It was a brilliant move on her part. One of them’s going to get taken out. Either they’re going to go after the Mayor or the Fire Chief,’ the ex-LAFD top brass said. ‘Saying ‘She defunded me, I didn’t have the money’ is a brilliant move.’
Tensions were already at boiling point between Bass and Crowley, even before the disastrous fires broke out on Tuesday.
The Mayor pushed through budget cuts of $17.6 million through a recent council vote, prompting Crowley to write her a memo on December 4 warning the slash ‘severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.’