LAFD Chief slams budget cuts impact on California wildfires

unprecedented times for the Los Angeles City Fire Department and of course all the other fire departments that are assisting us with these fires a new fire just broke out now in Granada Hills joining me now live the chief of the Los Angeles City Fire Department Kristen Crowley thank you for talking to us today and we're just going to get straight to the nitty-gritty because there's been so much talk and you're aware of the criticism most of the criticism has been directed towards the city of Los Angeles towards mayor Karen bass but it's also been directed

towards the administration everybody loves firefighters we love our men and women on the front lines but the administration is another thing and they've been very critical of the way everything has been handled your reaction when you read those tweets those messages those emails I tell you my reaction first is foremost is to step back and remind myself that I'm not a politician I'm the fire chief of the greatest Fire Department in the world so my focus first and foremost is to make sure that our fire department our firefighters are properly funded they're properly trained they're

properly equipped so when it comes to the criticism since day one my number one priority has been and will continue to be that our firefighters get what they need so that they can serve the community that is number one I am going to turn down the noise when it comes to any type of criticism because every decision that I make is going to be based off of what my firefighters need and those lives are on the line so let's get to the big question the budget there's so much talk about it it was cut 17

million it was cut this it wasn't cut at all according to one newspaper was your budget for the fiscal year 2024 2025 cut I can tell you I'm going to even go back further than that again since day one we've identified huge gaps in regard to our service delivery and our ability from our firefighters boots on the ground to do their jobs since day one this is my third budget as we're going into 25 26 what I can tell you is we are still underst staffed we're still underresourced and we're still underfunded so with that

whether it's 7 million 10 million but was the budget cut yes it was cut and it did impact our ability to provide service let's talk about that memo you sent a memo a scaving memo to the board of fire Commissioners where you expressed your concern that you were not going to be able to do your job your firefighters would not be able to respond adequately to a major emergency like a wildfire like what we're seeing right now right so understanding where our services gaps are number one is understanding where our firefighters need in regard to

to their equipment now let's focus back on what our people need and what they need to be as properly funded and equipped whether it's 7 million or not it doesn't matter it impacts our ability just like you said with the board report of our ability to provide service and that's on a normal day our firefighters are running over 1500 calls they're transporting 650 patients a day on a normal day let alone the last three days of what we've had with significant impacts that have changed the communities that we serve their lives forever so with that

we're going to continue to fight for what we need to that is my job as the as the fire chief of the best Fire Department in the world in December you wrote that memo you said that these budget cuts were going to severely affect your department from everything from brush clearance checks to make sure homeowners were doing what they needed to do to fire hydrant checks and yet you heard the mayor just yesterday say no those cuts did not affect the ability to serve and would not have changed anything in this situation what is going

through your mind and I know this is difficult there are a lot of politics at play you are not a politician you are the woman responsible for all these men and women at La City fire and for our residents in the city of Los Angeles when you hear the mayor say it didn't affect anything at all what is going through your head if you can share that with us sure so just full transparency again my position is to make sure that our people get what they need to do their jobs and also mind you that

they get to go home to their families the amount of calls that our firefighters are running today has doubled since 2010 a 55% increase with 68 less people full transparency this isn't a new problem for us since the three years that I've been in the seat I've sounded the alarm to say we need more this is no longer sustainable so with that we are now in a position to be properly funded we are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community that

we took an oath but when the representative of the city says the cuts that were made and signed did not affect the response to the fire the fire that is being criticized the response that is being criticized by so many people what is going through your mind yeah just a again the full transparency of of the documentation of being able to sound the alarm does it make you mad I don't know if it makes me mad in in the end that is my job as a chief to make sure that my voice is heard and

my voice is Amplified from the needs of what our people need to do their job so tell the city well tell the residents tell the people that are out there I mean thousands and thousands of people have lost their homes and they're looking to blame someone and it's not the Santa Ana winds necessarily they are looking to blame administrators right what is the message here and have you had a one-on-one with with the mayor bass and said hey I told you so I told you this was going to affect our ability to respond to a

major emergency I would start with a message to the community I think they already know in their hearts that our lfd firefighters are here to serve them first and foremost again none of us on the fire department are politicians we're public servants first we took an oath to serve the public before ourselves and even before our families so with that I want to focus on path forward I want to focus on what the LEF needs what I need as a fire chief and what our people need to do their jobs to make sure that we

can save lives and that we can protect property to the greatest capacity but we need to be funded appropriately and that's that's where my head is you asked the mayor said it didn't affect your ability to respond did it affect LA City fires ability to respond starting with a palisade fire and then this domino effect of fires including the Archer fire that we're seeing happen right now in Granada Hills yeah I think obviously any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service that's that's at this point that is a ground truth in

regard to our ability if there's a budget cut we had to pull from somewhere else what does that mean that doesn't get done there's delays so in the end again I'm going to focus on getting us what we need from this particular catastrophe and disaster and how much it's impacted the communities that we love I got to go after the things that will help our firefighters keep them safe and make sure that if and when this ever happens again that we're properly funded and that we have the ability to do our jobs and keep people

safe what is your message to City administrator starting with mayor bass my message is the fire department needs to be properly funded and it's not it's not at this point and we've got the justification we know where our gaps and service are we know we need 62 new fire stations we need to double the size of our firefighters the growth of this city since 1960 has doubled and we have less fire stations let's let's repeat that because those numbers are are a little jarring you know 20 years ago you had more fire stations than you

had now we had 112 fire stations now we have 106 and since 2010 we've had an increase doubled our call volume which is firefighters responding to calls 55% increase with 60s 68 less firefighters so the city funding is not keeping up with the city's needs in real time no and that's what our firefighters need okay I'm going to ask you again I'm going to continue pressing you on this in your mind what were you thinking when you hear all the city leaders say it didn't affect everything was great you know we you know it's unprecedented

and la la la and yes the santanaa winds are unprecedented we don't have them in January we all know that what was going through your heart what's going through my heart is that our firefighters the communties firefighters lfd firefighters need to be properly funded we need to be supported so that they can do their jobs and let me show you real quick photographer Tony B I'm going to ask you to pan over to that table tell me what I'm looking at this is is memo after memo after memo including to the board of fire Commissioners

where you pointed out your concerned that you were not going to adequately adequately be able to respond to a wildfire an earthquake everything that we see precisely in the city that's my job as a chief is to take a big step back and understand where and how can we better serve the community as a community needs more we need to have more to make sure that our firefighters can serve them I identified early my team identified early labor identified early that we have service gaps 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 it is the the followup it's showing and justifying where our gaps are and it's it's raising and sounding the alarm that the fire department is underfunded understaffed and underresourced do you believe had your budget concerns been properly addressed in the new fiscal year would we have seen the same outcome that we are seeing now with thousands and thousands

unprecedented numbers of structures homes businesses lost would the outcome had been different if they had listened to you I do believe if we would have set ourselves up appropriately over the past 3 years we would have been in a better position of what had happened here in the city where we lost homes and we lost lives that has to be very emotional for you this is your job but this has to be emotional this is more than a job to us this is who we are this is our duty and when you're you don't have

that ability and people don't listen that's why I'm talking to you right now the fire department needs to be funded appropriately so that I can look any Community member in the eye and say your ld's got your back and right now you can't right now no and that's why I'm here and how does that make you feel this is the burden of command as a fire chief of the greatest Department in the world that I've wholeheartedly raised my hand to say yes I will represent the amazing men and women of the lfd and when they're

they're not getting what they need to do their jobs it's enough and that's why I'm here and you have injured firefighters too and you see those homes that have burned to the ground there is so much loss people are out of jobs what goes through your heart when you see that the community is our community our firefighters stand with the community we live in the communities that burned so if anybody says anything in regard to our firefighters not doing everything that they can to protect our neighbors our community I will stand up and defend every

action that our members went through and are still actively fighting fire I don't think anybody is criticizing the firefighters I think the criticism has been lobbed maybe 80% at the city of Los Angeles and maybe 20% at the administration here well again I'm here to make sure that we are garnering the support to get our LEF firefighters what they need to do their jobs period did the city of Los Angeles fail you and your department and our city it's my job to stand up as a chief and exactly say justifiably what what the fire department

needs to operate to meet the demands of the community did they fail you that is our job and I tell you that's why I'm here so let's get us what we need so our firefighters can do their jobs did they fail you yes Chief Kristen crley I believe the anchors uh wanted to ask a question back there had some comments we do Gigi if you could please ask her regarding the Times article that came out that the Santa ANZ Reservoir was closed to repairs and it was empty 117 million gallons of water could have been

used in this fight the question is about the Santa inz Reservoir being empty uh there's been a lot of questions about that sure so my stance on this is when a firefighter comes up to a hydrant we expect there's going to be water we don't control the water supply our firefighters are there to protect lives and property and to make sure that we're properly trained and equipped that's my position on this so if there's no water I don't know how the water gets to the hydrants please defer that to DWP or whomever controls that part

but I can tell you the resiliency of our firefighters if there's no water they're going to go find water they're going to figure out a way to do the best they can with what they've got in a very Dynamic situation and I know you expressed concerns that those DWP hydrant would not be inspected thoroughly because of the budget cuts that is something to discuss and we're going to look into that in regard to how we can ensure there's going to be water when we need it but in the end you know I'm going to defer

that to DWP and whomever else controls the supply I can guarantee you that when our firefighters showed up on that day with what they had they did absolutely everything they could do to rescue and to save people's lives and property and that's the bottom line now let's get them what they need to do their jobs and so let's get them water chief because I was with your firefighters and they literally were watching a House burn down with pain in their eyes not being able to do anything except pull pull water from a swimming pool to

try to save a nearby structure that wasn't burning and literally watching a house burn to the ground because they had no water that's exactly right but did they continue to work and did they continue to do what they had to do to do the best they could with what they had yes Chief thank you very much for talking to us we appreciate it I have a follow follow question on that Reservoir issue is the fire department aware of when these resources are depleted just like that Reservoir had no water was she aware of that fact

that it was under construction and there was no water there Sandra Endo one of our anchors wants to know if the department is advised that the Santa inz Reservoir was going to be emptied did were you aware that there was no water there no we weren't aware of that they don't have to advise you not that I'm aware of no so you had no idea that there wasn't such needed a such needed resource uh no we weren't all right Chief Kristen Crowley again chief of the Los Angeles City Fire Department thank you for talking to

us I know it's been a very exhaustive emotional uh and I imagine you're mad and I imagine you're sad you may not want to talk about that anger or that disappointment but I can see it in your eyes thank you thank you for talking to for being here we appreciate it thank you we'll send it back to you