Fire department funding and recruitment policy come under scrutiny as deadly Los Angeles blazes rage on

(CNN) — As firefighters continue to battle raging fires across Los Angeles County, a cut to the Los Angeles Fire Department 2025 budget and its commitment to recruiting a more diverse force have come under attack.

Four major fires across the L.A. area have killed 16 people, scorched over 38,000 acres and damaged at least 10,000 structures. More than 166,000 people are under evacuation orders, the county sheriff said Friday.

Strong winds caused the fires to spread rapidly and complicated firefighting efforts, especially those from the sky.

As crews work to contain the inferno, LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley is facing criticism for prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion within the department. Meanwhile, Crowley has expressed concerns about a $17.4 million cut to the department’s 2025 budget, which included reductions in overtime staffing.

The finger-pointing has politicized what’s being described as the most destructive fire in L.A. history.

Los Angeles Fire Commission President Genethia Hudley-Hayes said it’s “out of line” to blame any local official for the magnitude of the fires, saying the focus should be on helping the residents who have lost everything.

The commission is composed of a five-person civilian board appointed by the mayor, and affirmed by the city council that oversees the fire department.

“This is not the time to demonize people,” Hudley-Hayes said.

The fire department budget has grown steadily year-over-year from $674.27 million in 2019 to $819.64 million in 2025, but it is down from $837.19 million in 2024. However, Hudley-Hayes stated that it has been underfunded for at least a decade.

Budget cuts

In June, Mayor Karen Bass approved a city budget of almost $13 billion that included a $17.4 million cut to the LAFD’s more than $800 million 2025 budget.

Crowley, in a December memo to the fire commission, said the cuts had “adversely affected the Department’s ability to maintain core operations, such as technology and communication infrastructure, payroll processing, training, fire prevention, and community education.”

The memo also pointed to a $7 million reduction in overtime due to fluctuating staffing needs, known as v-hours.

“The reduction in v-hours has severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires, earthquakes, hazardous material incidents, and large public events,” Crowley wrote. “Specialized programs and resources, such as Air Operations, Tactical EMS Units, Disaster Response, and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), which rely heavily on v-hours, are now at risk of reduced effectiveness.”

On Friday, Crowley reiterated city officials failed her department by slashing its budget, a decision that she says is now negatively impacting the agency’s ability to battle the raging wildfires in the county.

“We can no longer sustain where we are. We do not have enough firefighters,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Over 100 fire apparatus are out of service, the fire chief said. The budget cuts eliminated civilian positions such as mechanics, which “did and has and will continue to severely impact our ability to repair apparatus,” Crowley said.

Crowley has requested multiple interim budgets to show the city “how understaffed, under-resourced and underfunded” the LAFD is, citing data to show the agency “needs help,” she said. The data shows the department needs 62 additional fire stations, according to the fire chief.

The agency has seen a 55% increase in call lines since 2010, said Crowley, but it has fewer firefighters.

“Additional resources coming in will help us with this current disaster,” the fire chief said. “But moving forward, that potential can happen anywhere in the entire city of Los Angeles, and we need to be fully funded and supported.”

Hudley-Hayes said while she understands Bass needed to approve a balanced budget, the commission was concerned about how the cuts would impact certain functions of the department. For example, there was already a shortage of paramedics and EMTs, Hayes said.

The LAFD has more than 3,500 uniformed firefighters and civilian support staff and responds to 1,368 emergency incidents every day.

And there aren’t enough mechanics to fix all the equipment that is out of service such as rigs, fire trucks and hook-and-ladders, Hudley-Hayes said.

“Yes, I think the fire department is overwhelmed with what has happened,” Hudley-Hayes said. “The cuts have to be taken into consideration in terms of their ability to respond to something like this.”

But even with a fully funded fire department, Hudley-Hayes said she believes Los Angeles firefighters would have still struggled to contain the massive fires in strong winds.

“You’re talking about a phenomenon that we have not seen here,” she said. “I don’t see how anybody could have prepared for this.”

Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson told CNN on Friday the $17.4 million cut was only a line item and that there were increases in other areas, such as $100 million in fire department staff raises.

That assertion is echoed in reporting by the Los Angeles Times, which shows a complicated picture of the department’s budget: By the time additional funds were approved later in 2024, the department’s operating budget had actually increased, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing city financial analysts.

Robert Hawkins, president of the Los Angeles City Stentorians — which advocates for Black firemen — said he does not believe the budget impacted the department’s ability to fight the wildfires.

The fire department has been in disarray due to a lack of clear direction from leadership, Hawkins said.

He said there’s been a revolving door of assistant chiefs under Crowley, close calls on firefighter deaths and inadequate training.

Hawkins noted an instance this week where firefighters showed up to work, got suited up, and were then told to go home. He also mentioned that at times, there were firefighters ready to work but not enough fire engines to take them out to fight the fires.

“There’s frustration and a lack of trust in our leadership,” Hawkins said. “We just don’t have faith in the leadership.”

CNN has reached out to an LAFD spokesperson for comment.

The focus on inclusion

The LAFD has historically had mostly White, male firefighters, Hudley-Hayes said.

Crowley is the LAFD’s first woman and LGBTQ person to serve as chief, according to her bio.

In her bio, Crowley lists her priorities as “creating, supporting, and promoting a culture that values diversity, inclusion, and equity while striving to meet and exceed the expectations of the communities.”

Hudley-Hayes credits Crowley with establishing the department’s Office of Equity and Human Resources last year. Since she became chief in 2022, there are more Black, Latino, Asian and female firefighters in each recruitment class, Hudley-Hayes said.

Hawkins, however, said the department still struggles with diversity and how it treats Black firefighters. The LAFD is roughly 11% Black, he said.

Black firefighters continue to face low levels of promotions and often don’t receive adequate training for their positions, leading to low retention rates, Hawkins said.

“The treatment of African Americans in the fire department has been horrible,” Hawkins said.

Actor James Woods suggested that Crowley prioritized DEI over ensuring fire hydrants had enough water.

“She took over and she put on her bio that her priority … is inclusion, diversity and equity …,” Woods said on Fox News. “And somebody forgot to fill all the reservoirs, I guess, with water because when I was getting smoke alarms there was a fire truck parked in front of my house, but they couldn’t pump any water because there was none.”

On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that a nearby reservoir was undergoing repairs and was empty at the time of the fires, further hampering firefighting efforts.

Hours later, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for an independent investigation into the problems with the water supply for firefighters battling the blazes.

“The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and to the community,” Newsom wrote in a letter, which he posted on X.

Scott Jennings, a CNN political commentator, also condemned the efforts to diversify the fire department.

“We have DEI, we have budget cuts and yet I’m wondering now, if your house was burning down, how much do you care what color the firefighters are?” Jennings said on CNN’s Abby Phillip’s News Night.

Johnny Gray, president of the Los Angeles County Stentorians, which strives to promote diversity in the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said DEI is important to ensure there is fair representation of firefighters of all ethnicities, genders and backgrounds.

It also helps build trust with the community when they know there are firefighters who look like them and understand them, he said.

“It’s very important that we do reflect the community that we serve,” Gray said. “We are going inside these folks’ homes. There are different cultures, different ways of handling different situations and if you’re not diverse in your fire department you might not know how to handle it or how to talk to someone.”

CNN Chris Boyette, Elise Hammond and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.

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