Calls Grow For LAFD Chief Crowley To Resign Over Wildfire Mismanagement

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley received a growing number of calls to resign on Friday. Many LAFD chief officers are saying that she mismanaged the L.A. wildfires and needs to leave the post as a result.

Since January 7th, Los Angeles County has been devastated by several wildfires blazing in different areas of the county. This includes the Palisades Fire, which is currently at around 23,700 acres and has resulted in 10 deaths, over 105,000 evacuated, and 5,300 destroyed structures; and the Eaton Fire, which is currently over 14,100 acres and has caused 17 deaths, 100,000 evacuated, and roughly 7,000 destroyed structures. The Palisades fire is also currently at about 27% containment, with Eaton at about 65% containment.

Over the past 10 days, blame over the mismanagement of the wildfires has largely fallen upon both Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. For Newsom, his unpreparedness in dealing with the wildfires was the final straw for many, leading to the announcement this week that a new recall effort against him would be starting up. According to Randy Economy, a former senior advisor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and one of the leaders of the 2021 recall attempt against Newsom, the Governor is to be served with the recall papers in the next few weeks.

“Governor Gavin Newsom’s governance has been marked by a series of catastrophic failures, particularly his mismanagement of the recent wildfires, which have led to unprecedented displacement and destruction,” said Houman David Hemmati, a Saving California executive board member, earlier this week. “Wildfires are a common and well-known issue in California. The fact that Governor Newsom has not been able to come up with any plan or prep after six years as governor and eight years as lieutenant governor shows that he is completely unprepared and lacks the compassion and will to lead California any longer.”

Mayor Bass, meanwhile, has received more and more criticism over her handling of the emergency, leading many to call for both her resignation and a recall effort to be started up against her. Amongst Bass’ many criticisms tied to the fires include her cutting $17.5 million from the LAFD  in the 2024-2025 city budget, deciding to travel abroad in January despite knowing that a major emergency could happen with high speed winds being expected, giving a minimal response to the fires on the first day, refusing to answer press questions, having promised to never travel abroad as Mayor yet doing it anyway, and showing an overall general mismanagement of the fires once she returned to L.A.

While Bass has not yet responded to the growing number of calls for her to resign or the recall effort against her, she has admitted that she had made some errors in handling the wildfire situation. In a CBS interview on Tuesday, Bass noted that going to Ghana had been a mistake. When asked “Looking back, would you have taken that trip overseas?” she responded with a curt “No.”

Through all of this, leaders in city and county emergency services have generally been seen as the more reliable people to turn to. Leaders of the LAFD, LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department have all given regular updates, announced what they have been doing, and have kept residents safe to the best of their ability. Chief Crowley of the LAFD has arguably been the most visible of them, as she has given several press conferences and interviews since the fires began. She even made national headlines by saying that Mayor Bass’ cuts to the LAFD did indeed hurt their response to the fires despite Bass saying earlier that they didn’t have any effect on wildfire response.

Calls for Crowley to resign

However, in the past few days, Crowley has begun to fall from grace, with many now calling for her to resign. In particular, Crowley has faced criticism over the Department’s pre-deployment wildfire plans and how a shift of around 1,000 firefighters were not on standby at the time of the winds. Several retired and active LAFD chief officers likewise noted her mismanagement of the fires in a letter this week, and said that she needed to resign as a result.

“A large number of chief officers do not believe you are up to the task,” the officers said in the letter.

The LAFD’s decision to not position any additional fire trucks in advance in the Palisades also drew scrutiny from for former chiefs.

“Positioning firefighters and equipment near fire zones in significant numbers well in advance during periods of high wildfire danger has long been a key strategy in the department,” explained Patrick Butler, a former LAFD assistant Chief and current Chief of the Redondo Beach Fire Department, on Friday. “It’s unfathomable to me how this happened, except for extreme incompetence and no understanding of fire operations.”

Others further noted Crowley’s falling support this week.

“Bass, and to some extent, Newsom have been getting the brunt of it all since the fires began,” said LA County pollster Manny Rodriguez to the Globe on Friday. “Bass’ popularity has been going down pretty fast. Newsom is a bit harder to figure as he is Governor of the entire state, but it’s obvious that his response could have been a lot better now.

“For Crowley though, wow, she should have been golden. She was calm and unflappable in her response and was telling the public as much as she could. But this week, after all that new info coming out that more crews and trucks could have been in the Palisades, she is not doing as hot anymore. Once the fires are out, there are going to be a lot of investigations into what went wrong, and Crowley have have to leave by then. Bass too.

“Last week if you asked me who was going to have to leave after all this, I would have just said Bass. She’s hated in L.A. now. But after everything revealed this week, Crowley looks like she may be going too. I don’t think there is a scenario where both are still in office by the end of 2025.”

As of Friday, Crowley has yet to respond to the letter calling for her resignation. In a statement on Thursday, the LAFD noted that “Chief Crowley is focused on mitigating the fires and is unable to respond to the letter.”