LA Fire Chief Warns of Budget Cuts Last Month – NBC Los Angeles

LA’s fire chief warned in the weeks before the devastating Palisades fire that the decision to cut the department’s budget by nearly $18 million would reduce its ability to prepare for and respond to large-scale emergencies.

The budget reduction, approved last year by Mayor Karen Bass, was mostly absorbed by leaving many administrative jobs in the fire department unfilled, but it left about $7 million to be cut from its overtime budget — earmarked for training, fire prevention and other key features.

“The reduction… has severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,” Chief Kristin Crowley wrote in a Dec. 4, 2024, memo.

The variable overtime hours, called “V-hours” within the LAFD, were used to pay for FAA-mandated pilot training and helicopter coordination manning to fight wildfires, the memo said.

Mayor Bass said Wednesday night that the budget cuts had no impact on the LAFD’s response to the Palisades and other wildfires.

“I’m confident it didn’t,” Bass replied in response to the fire chief’s memo, suggesting fire expenses would exceed budgeted amounts for the fiscal year.

Bass also dismissed criticism that she was on an overseas trip when the fires started amid intense winds that had been forecast several days in advance.

“Even though I wasn’t physically here, I was in contact with a lot of the people who are here all the time,” Bass said.

“I was on the phone, on the plane, almost every hour of the flight,” she said.

The fire chief’s memo was presented last month to the Board of Fire Commissioners, a panel of mayoral appointees that oversees the management of the department.

“Without this funding, pilot compliance and preparedness is compromised and aerial firefighting is diminished,” it said. “Changes to the air operations section impact the department’s ability to comply with current automatic and mutual aid agreements, provide air ambulance service and rapidly respond to wildfires with water-dropping helicopters.”

The memo also highlighted other programs that would suffer from the cuts, including the Disaster Response Section, which funds the bulldozer crews that cut breaks and control lines around wildfires, and the Critical Incident Planning and Training Section, which develops plans for major emergencies.

Fire officials downplayed the potential impact the cuts would have on a larger emergency, referring questions to Chief Crowley, who was unavailable because of another fire that ignited in the Hollywood Hills late Wednesday.

“Any fire department, even our size, is stretched thin, which is why we’re calling in our mutual aid partners,” LAFD spokesman Jacob Raabe said.

The Palisades fire started Tuesday and, fanned by high winds, destroyed hundreds of buildings and burned about 15,800 acres. It is one of five wildfires burning in Southern California.