Just weeks before five wildfires engulfed the City of Angels, Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley warned that Mayor Karen Bass’s (D.) budget cuts to her department "severely limited" its response to wide-scale emergencies—including wildfires.
In a memo dated Dec. 4, Crowley wrote that Bass’s $7 million reduction to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s overtime budget "severely limited the department’s ability to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires, earthquakes, hazardous material incidents, and large public events." All told Bass cut more than $17 million from the fire department this year, according to the enacted budget, although she initially proposed slashing nearly $23 million.
"These budgetary reductions have adversely affected the Department’s ability to maintain core operations," such as training and fire prevention, Crowley wrote in her memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners, which is comprised of mayoral appointees. "Specialized programs and resources, such as Air Operations, Tactical EMS Units, Disaster Response, and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), which rely heavily on [overtime], are now at risk of reduced effectiveness."
Bass’s fire department budget also allocated $5 million for electric fire vehicles. The Democrat has prioritized funding for renewable energy projects as a way to curb disasters she says stem from climate change.
At a Wednesday evening press conference, Bass said she was "confident" the budget cuts didn’t hurt the response. She called in a fire department representative who said, "Any fire department, even of our size, is stretched thin" in this sort of crisis.
Los Angeles is battling five different fires, three of which started on Tuesday, with the causes still under investigation. They have burned tens of thousands of acres, killed at least five people, and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes, businesses, and other buildings. The quiet beach community of Pacific Palisades, where the largest fire started, has been devastated. As Bass spoke to reporters Wednesday evening, news broke that the fifth conflagration had erupted in the Hollywood Hills near Runyon Canyon—a popular recreation spot.
Crowley’s memo, first reported by an NBC affiliate Wednesday evening, raises further questions about Bass’s preparation for potential wildfires in a vulnerable city. The mayor was attending a presidential inauguration in Ghana when the first fires broke out and didn’t return until Wednesday. On her way home, she refused to look at or answer a Sky News reporter who pressed her at the airport about her fire department cuts and whether she had a message for her constituents.
At her press conference, Bass tried deflecting criticism over her Ghana trip, telling reporters she took a military flight for part of her journey back and spent "almost every hour of the flight" on the phone. She also blamed climate change for the magnitude of the fires.
"I think we all understand in our city that, due to climate change, we’re going to continue to see very unusual weather events," Bass said, noting that severe winds "not seen in L.A. in at least 14 years" propelled the fires. The National Weather Service in Los Angeles, however, warned of those severe winds as early as last Thursday. Bass did not issue any warnings about the wind storm until Monday. She was already in Ghana.
Meanwhile, Bass and her administration are facing a separate set of questions over why tanks in Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood began running out of water Tuesday night, hindering the fire response.
Janisse Quiñones, chief engineer for L.A.’s Department of Water and Power, confirmed that about 200 water hydrants and three million-gallon water tanks in the Pacific Palisades went dry as the fire raged and that record high demand has made it hard to maintain the pressure needed to keep water flowing to the hills.
Quiñones was hired under Bass with a $750,000 salary, 72 percent higher than her predecessor’s, and funded by Los Angeles residents’ water and power fees. Last month, she joined Bass in touting climate efforts.
"We are making significant investments in infrastructure and programs to ensure our city continues to weather the impacts of climate change and maintain access to critical life services of water and power," Quiñones said. "We are here to show the world how Los Angeles is a model of innovation and sustainability in the United States and the world."
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) announced Wednesday night that he was sending some 140 water trucks from around the state to Los Angeles.