Three months after Palisades fire, mayor proposes adding more than 200 jobs to LAFD
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Months after the most destructive wildfire in modern Los Angeles history, Mayor Karen Bass is seeking to add scores of new employees to the Fire Department, even as an array of other agencies face layoffs.
The mayor, who has been working to close a nearly $1-billion budget gap, called for adding 227 positions to the Fire Department in her budget proposal for 2025-26, released Monday.
About half the new hires would be firefighters, in a department of just under 3,250 firefighters. The remaining new positions include 25 new emergency medical technicians in addition to mechanics and others.
Genethia Hudley Hayes, president of the city’s Fire Commission, said Monday that the Fire Department has been under-resourced for more than a decade.
“I feel very hopeful,” she said about Bass’ budget proposal. “The mayor has absolutely said that she understands we are going to have to have more funding.”
Bass’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the days after the Palisades fire broke out, then-Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said that budget cuts had hampered the department’s ability to fight the wind-driven blaze. Bass and her team responded by saying that, once employee raises were factored in, the Fire Department budget actually grew this year.
In the wake of the fire, which destroyed nearly 7,000 structures and killed 12 people, both Crowley and the firefighters union described the department as severely underfunded.
Bass, who releases her budget for 2025-26 on Monday, has been weighing whether or not to lay off more than 1,500 workers.
In an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Jan. 10, Crowley said her department did not have enough firefighters and lacked enough mechanics to repair broken-down emergency vehicles.
At one point, Tapper asked whether budget cuts hurt her agency’s ability to fight the wildfire.
“I want to be very, very clear. Yes,” Crowley responded.
On Feb. 21, Bass ousted Crowley, complaining that she had not heard from the chief, amid worsening wind forecasts, until after the fire broke out. She also questioned the chief’s deployment decisions.
A Times investigation found that LAFD officials chose not to order roughly 1,000 firefighters to remain on duty for a second shift as winds were building — which would have doubled the personnel on hand when the Palisades fire broke out the morning of Jan. 7.
Freddy Escobar, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, asserted that the department did not have enough fire trucks and engines for those 1,000 firefighters.
But several former LAFD chief officers told The Times that keeping the firefighters on duty would have enabled the department to send dozens of extra engines to the Palisades and other high-risk areas. And firefighters not assigned to the additional engines would have been available for other tasks.
On Monday, Escobar said the mayor’s proposed budget is a step in the right direction.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fired LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley on Friday.
“These are difficult decisions the mayor has to make, and she is prioritizing the Fire Department and first responders. We’re grateful for that,” he said.
Still, Escobar said the department is “woefully” understaffed and underfunded.
The City Council has until the end of May to make changes to the mayor’s budget and then approve it.
Hudley Hayes emphasized the need for additional mechanics to ensure that fire equipment and vehicles are in working order. She said those mechanics need to be better compensated so they do not leave for higher-paying positions. The mayor’s budget includes funding for four heavy-duty equipment mechanics and nine mechanical helpers, along with a maintenance laborer.
The budget also includes new Fire Department initiatives, including the creation of a Homeless Fire Protection and Street Medicine Program, which would “provide adequate fire protection, enforcement, and medical care for individuals experiencing homelessness.” The new program would be staffed by more than 50 firefighters and an array of other employees, accounting for 67 of the department’s 227 new positions.
In 2024, 16,742 fires in the city were connected to people experiencing homelessness, up from 4,124 in 2018, according to Fire Department data.
Faced with a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, Bass released a budget after her speech that calls for the elimination of more than 2,700 city positions — including 1,650 layoffs.
City Councilmember Traci Park, whose district includes Pacific Palisades and who has advocated for more Fire Department funding, said that the mayor’s proposal was a good sign but that the city should go further.
“This is a tiny drop in the bucket of what is actually necessary to right-size our Fire Department in Los Angeles,” she said.
Park pointed to a motion the council passed last month to explore a ballot measure that would provide additional funding for Fire Department facilities.
Some Palisades residents also expressed hope about the mayor’s proposal to provide additional resources to the Fire Department.
Larry Vein runs the Pali Strong Foundation, which helps people with problems related to the Palisades fire. Vein’s own home suffered smoke damage in the fire.
“Were many of the residents frustrated? Were there allocations of proper resources in the right place? Did we have enough of a fire budget? Perhaps not,” Vein said. “But we have to look forward.”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
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