As deadly wildfires rage across Los Angeles, leaving destruction and heartbreak in their wake, turmoil in City Hall threatens to overshadow the crisis. Reports surfaced Friday suggesting that Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley had been fired—rumors that sent shockwaves through the city just as emergency crews fought to save lives and property.

On Saturday morning, Mayor Karen Bass and Chief Crowley appeared together in a carefully choreographed news conference to dispel the rumors. The united front was an attempt to quash speculation about Crowley’s fate, but questions lingered. While both leaders insisted their focus remained on tackling the wildfires, their public statements hinted at underlying tensions.

“So let me be clear about something—the fire chief and I are focused on fighting these fires and saving lives,” Bass declared. “Any differences that we might have will be worked out in private.” Asked point-blank whether she had planned to fire Crowley, Bass answered, “no.” But her refusal to address questions about recent budget cuts and their impact on firefighting efforts only deepened the mystery.

The speculation surrounding Crowley’s job began earlier in the week when a leaked memo revealed she had sounded the alarm about $17 million in budget cuts hampering the fire department’s ability to respond to emergencies. In a December 4 memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners, Crowley warned that slashed funding for overtime hours had “severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies.”

By Friday night, as rumors of her dismissal swirled, the mayor’s office and LAFD issued statements insisting Crowley remained in her role. But the damage was done. Crowley’s absence from a Friday evening news conference only fueled suspicions of discord between the two leaders.

Adding to the drama, Crowley admitted in a CBS interview that the cuts had indeed constrained the department. “We did exactly what we could with what we had,” she said. When asked if the budget reductions had impacted firefighting efforts, she offered a sobering assessment: “To a certain factor, yes.”

The timing of the controversy could not be worse. The wildfires have already claimed at least 11 lives and destroyed thousands of homes, schools, businesses, and places of worship. Firefighters are battling unprecedented windstorms—conditions the mayor described as a once-in-a-decade challenge.

But critics argue that the crisis was foreseeable. Just three weeks before the fires ignited, Fire Commission President Genethia Hudley-Hayes sounded a dire warning during a meeting: “We really are at a crisis point, she said, urging residents to pressure their city council members to address the department’s funding needs.

Meanwhile, the city council’s approval of a $203 million contract for firefighter wages and health benefits last November has drawn scrutiny. While intended to support the department’s workforce, critics claim it failed to address critical operational needs.

On Saturday, Bass and Crowley presented themselves as a team united by purpose, but their body language and carefully worded statements suggested otherwise. Crowley spoke of the LAFD’s resilience, praising her team’s efforts despite limited resources. Bass, for her part, deflected blame for the budget cuts, attributing the chaos to the ferocity of the windstorms.

“There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days,” Bass insisted.

But with the city still burning and questions about the department’s preparedness mounting, her reassurances may not be enough to quiet the critics.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)