United Firefighters of Los Angeles president is "outraged" over removal of LAFD chief

The United Firefighters of Los Angeles City president blasted Mayor Karen Bass for her decision to remove Kristin Crowley as Los Angeles Fire Department chief, saying she is a "scapegoat."

Bass made the announcement Friday afternoon, and shortly after, union President Freddy Escobar, a 35-year LAFD veteran, said firefighters stand united in recognizing her removal as a "grave mistake" by the mayor.

"On behalf of the firefighters I represent, I am here to say we are outraged at the termination of fire Chief Crowley, period. In our opinion, Chief Crowley is being made a scapegoat, and she is being terminated for telling the truth."

Early in December, Crowley had issued a warning about $17 million in recent budget cuts potentially hurting LAFD's ability to respond to emergencies. 

She wrote in a memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners that the slashing of $7 million in funding for overtime hours had "severely limited the Department's capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies."  

Escobar said that the department has long been underfunded and under-resourced. He said staff was ready and available on Jan. 7 when the Palisades Fire broke out.

"I was here in Los Angeles when they did the recall. We had more members willing to participate than we had seats to put those members in," he said -- shifting blame to a lack of mechanics available to fix broken fire engines.

Escobar also refuted the other reason Bass gave for removing Crowley from her position as chief -- for refusing to do an after-action fire report.

"I have called for a full investigation of everything leading up to Jan. 7. A necessary step to the investigation was the president of the fire commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after-action report on the fires. The fire chief refused," Bass said at Friday's announcement.

"I am going to tell you right now, an after-action report is occurring while we speak," Escoabar said. "It's called FSRI, which stands for Fire Safety Research Institute." 

He said the institute is a private entity, funded by the state, and is actively investigating the Palisades and Eaton fires.

The union president continued to praise Crowley's work ethic and character. "I've known Chief Crowley for 20-plus years. She's a person of integrity and a true leader."