Ex-Los Angeles fire chief sues the city over her firing after the Palisades Fire

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former Los Angeles fire chief has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that her ouster was part of an orchestrated effort to smear her conduct and decision-making so Mayor Karen Bass could avoid accountability for the most destructive wildfire in LA history.

Bass sacked Kristin Crowley a month after the January 2025 Palisades Fire, and her dismissal was followed by finger-pointing between the ex-chief and City Hall over the blaze's devastation and the fire department’s funding. In March of that year, Crowley lost an appeal to the City Council to win back her job.

Crowley's lawsuit filed last week alleges that Bass spread misinformation to protect the mayor's political reputation following the fire.

The mayor's office said the lawsuit has no merit.

“There is nothing new here. Ms. Crowley was removed from her post for her failure to predeploy and her decision to send 1,000 firefighters home instead of keeping them on duty on the morning the fires broke out," Yusef Robb, a senior adviser to Bass, said in a statement Tuesday.

A message seeking comment was also sent to the LA City Attorney’s office.

Crowley accuses the first-term Democrat of trying to distract from criticism over being in Africa for a presidential delegation when the blaze started, even though weather reports had warned of dangerous wildfire conditions in the days before she left.

Bass made statements to shift blame, “including falsely claiming that she was not aware of the nationally anticipated weather event, falsely claiming that the LAFD’s budget was not cut, and falsely claiming that LAFD’s resources would have supported an additional 1,000 firefighters to fight the blaze,” the lawsuit alleges.

“These false statements were not mistakes but part of a deliberate strategy to divert scrutiny from Bass’ decisions and to avoid accountability,” the lawsuit states.

In the filing, the former chief seeks unspecified economic and compensatory damages.

Bass fired Crowley on Feb. 21, 2025, six weeks after the LA fire started. She praised Crowley early on in the firefighting efforts, but she said she later learned that an additional 1,000 firefighters could have been deployed on the day the blaze ignited. Furthermore, she said Crowley rebuffed a request to prepare a report on the fires that is a critical part of investigations into what happened and why.

Crowley's legal filing disputes both those claims.

The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7 in heavy winds. It destroyed or damaged nearly 8,000 homes, businesses and other structures, and it killed at least 12 people in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent LA neighborhood. Another fire started that day in Altadena, a suburb east of LA, killing at least 17 people and destroying or damaging more than 10,000 homes or other buildings.

When she was ousted from the top job, Crowley was demoted three ranks to assistant chief and currently serves in a “special duty” position with the fire department's Risk, Health and Safety Division, according to court papers.