It was the first time since he fired Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristen Crowley, Mayor Karen Bass asked a question at a press conference Wednesday.
While a press conference was held and discussing the city’s rebuilding and recovery efforts following the Palisade and Eton fires, questions quickly challenged the debate over Crowley’s firing.
Crawley was fired on February 21, saying that Crowley’s removal after the Palisades fire and other flames in January was “for the greatest benefits of public safety in Los Angeles, and for the operation of the Los Angeles Fire Department.”
The mayor’s decision has since attracted public criticism from councillor Monica Rodriguez, who accused Bus of “misinforming the facts” surrounding Crawley’s firing.
For example, earlier this week, United firefighters of LA President Freddie Escobar claimed they didn’t have enough work engines on fire morning.
However, the mayor rebutted the claim to KTLA’s Annie Rose Ramos on Wednesday morning, saying 40 unused fire engines were not working.
“There are fire trucks that need repairs, and the fire department needs a mechanic, and there’s no doubt about that,” Bass said. “But 1,000 firefighters – many of those firefighters could have ridden 40 firefighters.”
The “1,000 firefighters” mentioned by Bass was linked to her original statement about Crowley’s launch, claiming that there could have been firefighters who could have served in the morning, but instead was sent home on Chief Crawley’s watch.
Bass was also asked about the lack of communication as to why Councillor Marchece Harris Dawson, who served as mayor at the time the Palisade fire, did not declare that he was in an emergency until hours after the fire became furious.
“I don’t know if that was a direct difference in terms of what was happening in the fire,” Bass replied. “The emergency declaration did not maintain efforts to defeat the fire.”
Also, Wednesday’s question once again forced Palisades to address the reasons why they didn’t return to LA anytime soon from Ghana when the fire broke out.
“We have time to come back, but it tells us that there is no hourly flight from Accra in Ghana to the US,” Bass said.
Elina Abobian contributed to this article.
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