Los Angeles Mayor Dismisses Fire Chief, Lays Blame

Six weeks after devastating wildfires, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ousted the city's fire chief amid a public rift between the chief and City Hall. Bass said in a statement on Friday that she is removing Chief Kristin Crowley immediately. The mayor asserted that 1,000 more firefighters could have been on duty the morning the fires broke out on Jan. 7 but "were instead sent home on Chief Crowley's watch," per the AP and the New York Times. Bass added that the chief refused a request to prepare an "after-action report" on the fires, which she called a necessary step in the investigation.

"These require her removal," Bass said. "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." The mayor herself has been the subject of criticism over the fires because she was in Africa as part of a presidential delegation on the day they started—even though weather reports had warned of dangerous fire conditions in the days before she left.

(More Palisades Fire stories.)