To the editor: The Los Angeles City Council is so disappointing. A career firefighter is fired by a career politician under unprecedented circumstances (“Former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley loses bid to get her job back, winning just two votes,” March 4). The Palisades and Altadena fires were caused by hurricane-force winds. Everyone knew they were coming. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley — and all of the heroic firefighters — should be thanked. The political move of firing the chief is despicable.
Laurie Kelson, Encino
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To the editor: Two wrongs don’t make a right. Yes, Mayor Karen Bass should definitely have fired Crowley, but she was also wrong in her handling of the Palisades fire. I think Bass should resign.
Dafni Black, Culver City
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To the editor: While the fires were still burning and people needed updates and information, Crowley decided to use her time at the mic to blame and shame the mayor rather than use that valuable time for more actual fire news.
A mayor needs to have people she can count on in a crisis to pull together as a team. Crowley does not seem to believe that she is part of that team and somehow now thinks she should get an end run around the mayor.
We need to support our mayor and allow her to have a team that works together in a crisis — not try to use a news conference to take a political jab.
Bob Farran, Los Angeles
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To the editor: It wasn’t the budget, it was Crowley’s inaction on staffing levels that may have allowed the Palisades fire to become so very destructive. I do believe it was correct for Bass to terminate Crowley.
Mark Hollingsworth, Los Angeles
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To the editor: The firing of Crowley is a blatantly political stunt. After Crowley bravely stood up and informed the people that the department was lacking funding and support, she was fired by Bass for politically convenient justifications.
The community deserves to be protected. Crowley deserves to be reinstated. The department deserves to be reinforced. Bass and her bruised ego don’t deserve to be reelected.
Brendan Krepchin, Mountain View
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To the editor: I am very disappointed to see that the City Council voted not to reinstate Crowley, who was fired by Bass even before all the investigations into the recent fires have been completed.
I believe that Crowley was fired for speaking out publicly about the Fire Department’s needs, for firefighter safety, and about the lack of apparatus needed at the time of the fires (broken-down fire engines, fire trucks and ambulances) due to cuts in fleet maintenance.
I understand that she did inform city officials about the upcoming fire danger before the fires broke out. Seriously, we all were glued to those high fire warnings on the news for several days before they occurred.
Susan Wong, Shadow Hills
