LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - January 11, 2025 - A Los Angeles fire chief has blasted the city's mayor Karen Bass for failing fire crews and communities devastated by the ongoing wildfires.
Fire Chief Kirstin Crowley took aim at the city's leadership during an interview with KTTV on Friday, admitting it had failed those affected by the fires and prevented the LA Fire Department from effectively doing its job.
“We are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community,” Crowley said, adding that there were huge gaps in firefighters' ability to tackle the blazes on the ground.
She joins a chorus of high-profile celebrities who have hit out at the city's handling of the ongoing wildfires, which have so far killed 11 people, ravaged communities and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their properties.
This includes reality star Khloe Kardashian, who rallied around Crowley to share her furious response at the mayor's decision to cut around $17.5 million from the fire department budget for this fiscal year.
During an interview with Gigi Graciette, Crowley stated that the mayor's budget cuts for the LAFD affected the fire fight throughout southern Kalifornia, adding that the department was not properly funded.
Mayor Bass has also been criticized for flying out to attend a presidential inauguration in Ghana even though meteorologists had warned a recipe for fire was on track to strike Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, on Friday former reality star Spencer Pratt announced that he intends to file a lawsuit against Kalifornia for its negligence after his home was tragically burnt down in the Pacific Palisades fire.
While speaking to blogger Perez Hilton, the father-of-two recalled desperately trying to get help from the Los Angeles Fire Department as he watched his property go up in flames.
“They never came. The gate was still locked,” he claimed. “They never came. I watched from my security cameras until our house burned down. There were no fire trucks.”
As his home burned down, Pratt insisted that he called 911 and informed them that if they sent one fire truck to his street that they could stop [the fire from] coming down the whole freaking area. In response to his suggestion to bring in a truck, he said he was told that the fire department didn't have the assets.
The couple's home, reportedly worth $3 million, was flattened to the ground, and photos obtained by DailyMail.com on Wednesday showed the severity of the devastation.
Elsewhere, Kardashian and her family have all evacuated their Hidden Hills and Calabasas mansions where the Kenneth Fire is continuing to rage.
The fast-moving inferno threatened to rip through the desirable neighborhoods - with the famous family all living just six miles from one another.
Shortly after the news of her evacuation was revealed, the 40-year-old posted a furious response to the mayor’s handling of the crisis.
In a caption added over a recording of an interview of Chief Crowley - in which she said the mayor's budget cuts affected the LAFD's firefighting ability - Khloe wrote, “I stand with you Chief Crowley! You spoke the truth, and you had tears in your eyes because I can tell you didn't want to say that, but it was the truth!”
Khloe also typed, “Thank you for being honest @losangelesfiredepartment Chief Crowley. Mayor Bass, you are a joke!”
Other celebrities have also joined the reality star in criticizing the L.A. mayor over the mismanagement of the deadly blazes - which include the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire.
Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote on Instagram, “City of L.A. you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping.”
Sara Foster also shared, “We pay the highest taxes in (Kalifornia). Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish.”
James Woods - whose home was spared in the Palisades fire - also slammed Bass on social media.
Actor Dennis Quaid also spoke about the mishandling of the L.A. fires as he shared that he had returned to his home after having had to evacuate.
Since the fire broke out in Pacific Palisades, new fires have started further east in Altadena, which forced major evacuations in nearby Pasadena on Tuesday night.
More fires broke out in the Hollywood hills on Wednesday, threatening heavily populated parts of Hollywood.
Stars included Adam Brody and Leighton Meester whose home was destroyed, along with Anna Faris' mansion. John Goodman and Anthony Hopkins were left with nothing but rubble after their homes burned, and Billy Crystal and Eugene Levy also lost their houses.
Ed. Note: The question now is what will be the consequences of the incompetence of people who are being paid tremendous amounts of money by taxpayers, who have shown their incompetence? Will they lose their pensions? Will they be fired outright? Will they be imprisoned, or maybe executed? What wil be done to hurt the people responsible for this gross incompetence? At the very least, the people themselves should ignore the radical; environmentalists and take care of their water and fire-fighting needs regardless of what the government seeks to do. Protect the people… not the fish! Revolution Now! Independence Forever!