Before The Great Los Angeles Fire, The LA Fire Department Complained That The Budget Was Cut, 58 Positions Were Removed

Fire in Los Angeles. (X @OGAride)

JAKARTA - Head of the Los Angeles (LA) Fire Department (Damkar) or LAFD, Kristin Crowley, said budget cuts prevented his side from responding to an emergency disaster. This was revealed by Crowley before a forest fire hit LA.

Citing CBS News, Friday, January 10, complaints about the budget cuts have been written in the memo of the LA fire department dated July 2024.

Crowley said the USD 7 million overtime cut in the budget had made it difficult for the Los Angeles fire department to carry out a number of large-scale fire mitigations such as cleaning the bush and controlling houses.

The 2024 LA fire department budget cuts have removed 58 positions, adjusted employee salaries, and eliminated costs once, such as purchasing breathing apparatus equipment for officers.

Complaints on funding and personnel issues have also been submitted by the Commissioner of the LA Department of Fires, Genethia Hudley-Hayes in a meeting with the LA board on December 17, 2024.

"It's not fair to say that we are in crisis mode within the Los Angeles Fire Department," Hudley-Hayes said.

"Anyone who knows council members must go to the city council, talk to the council members, talk on their environmental boards, do whatever they need to because we are really at a crisis point."

When asked by the media crew at a press conference on Thursday, January 9, 2025, LA Mayor Karen Bass said budget cuts did not affect the ability of the LA fire department to deal with the current fires.

"No reduction has been made that will affect the situation we've been dealing with over the past few days," Bass said.

Bass stressed that the LA fire department also received additional funds from city contracts with trade unions.

He stressed that the most important thing right now is the focus on dealing with LA forest fires which have scorched many houses and public facilities and exacerbated strong winds so that the potential for hotspots to spread is very high.

"Unprecedented wind storm, a very strong wind we have never seen in years, is the context of when we face this."