L.A. Fire Dept emphasized equity and now city burns under first female-LGBTQ command

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Photo credit: Scott/Flickr/L.A. Fire Department

By NICK POPE | DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) committed significant resources to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives before the outbreak of massive fires that devastated the Los Angeles area overnight.

The LAFD has implemented an internal “racial equity plan,” subjected employees to diversity training and is currently led by Chief Kristin Crowley, “the first female and LGBTQ Fire Chief in the LAFD” and a staunch supporter of the initiatives. As strong winds fed the wildfires on Tuesday evening, former Republican Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso reported that some fire hydrants were running low on water as the department scrambled to mobilize firefighters.

The department’s racial equity plan, adopted in 2021, asserts that the LAFD is a better firefighting organization for focusing on the demographic characteristics of its personnel.

“The strength of any organization rests in its greatest resource—its people; and LAFD leadership cannot accomplish any of the racial equity and inclusion goals without the employees to accomplish the work and embrace the vision while being guided by competent leadership,” the LAFD racial equity plan states. “It has been concluded and realized that the more talent, skills, perspectives, insight, knowledge, and abilities acquired through racial equity and inclusion, the stronger and more effective and competitive the organization has become.”

The LAFD evidently did not have adequate personnel on hand to mount an immediate and sufficient response to the devastating fires, indicated by the rare Tuesday night call to off-duty firefighters to report their availability. Some forecasts, including those issued by the National Interagency Fire Center and the California Office for Emergency Services, warned that Southern California was at high risk for serious fires before Tuesday’s events.

In a brief with the news media Wednesday morning, officials said that the fires have claimed more than 1,000 buildings and caused serious injuries for civilians who did not evacuate hard-hit areas in time.

Shortly after taking over the top job at LAFD in 2022, Crowley made clear in a local news segment that one of her top priorities would be increasing the department’s diversity. In the interview, she suggested she does not look to meet specific demographic quotas in the department because there is “never enough” diversity.

Los Angeles County also posted an October 2024 video touting a one-day DEI planning event hosted by the Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, during which county leaders worked on ideas and plans to “realize a just and equitable LA County for all residents and all communities.” An official county website detailing its work with the Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative states that the county “seeks to end structural racism and its consequences by working closely with all County departments, commissions, agencies, and advisory bodies to collaborate with all cities, unincorporated communities, school districts, state and federal agencies, community-based organizations, philanthropy and academic institutions.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the fires were still out of control, consuming thousands of acres of land with the help of powerful wind gusts that have yet to subside.

The LAFD did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

83 COMMENTS

  1. Wow that’s reassuring. And this from a couple days ago….You can make this stuff up. But then you find that you just were guessing how bad it was and reality shows it to be so much worse…..

    ‘https://babylonbee.com/news/fbi-assures-nation-it-will-put-its-most-diverse-agents-on-terror-case

  2. Trading success for failure is the Progressive’s mantra. It is part of the Progressive faith. Human sacrifice, if we trade success for failure, Nirvana becomes our glory. These religious fanatics believe ritual human sacrifice will lift failure from the pit of despair. The church believes failure just needs a chance. And that opportunity is paid for by success. And we know what happens. Success takes a 2nd job, and failure stays home playing video games and masturbating. It is the circle of life.

  4. Wow. This article is just wow. Instead of just plainly blaming the chief and LAFD, it went ahead and said that because the chief is gay and a woman the fires were inevitable.
    Just go ahead and blame the poor planning of the LAFD and the chief. That’s it. Nobody cares about what someone does behind closed doors.
    This is not journalism.

    • People SHOULD care when “what someone does behind closed doors” is used as a qualification for hiring a position, which if performed poorly (the job position not various bedroom positions), has such monumental consequences….

    • No, the article states that she was hired for her sexual perversion and sex, not her ability to do the job. You filled in that blank. The tree is judged by its fruit.

    • liz:
      The hiring policies that place “what a person is” above “what a person does” is EXACTLY what caused this.
      .
      About time someone actually starts calling it out.

    • This is journalism. These DEI hires are lauded as being stunning and brave and their identity is pushed out in front of us.

      ie “First woman” “first lesbian” “first woman of color” blah blah blah.

      So when they put themselves on the identity pedestal through leftist journalism, it is up to right wing journalists to use the same identity tactics to bring them back down to reality.

      Identity politics will destroy this country before it does any actual uplifting of humanity.

      You are seeing the results. Enjoy the show.

    • You’re 100% correct, this isn’t journalism, it’s pure propaganda. But I’m surprised you’d come here expecting anything else?

      Is DEI stupid? I think it generally is. But there’s not enough evidence that LAFD’s response to these fires has been insufficient due to DEI’s integration. Could it be that the fires are just beyond the capability of the LAFD and its supporting agencies? Could it be that the LAFD’s leadership is incompetent and ignored warning signs? Could it be the residents resisted zoning laws that would have helped prevent fires from spreading so rapidly?

      Maybe to all of these. But instead of doing a thorough, exhaustive investigation, let’s just jump to the MAGA dog whistle of DEI.

      • “…..Could it be that the fires are just beyond the capability of the LAFD and its supporting agencies?…….”
        Without water? Yeah, pretty much. But my bet is that the friendly folks who were in charge of ensuring the water supply are also awash in DEI, climate change, and rebuilding salmon runs in streams that haven’t seen salmon in a century or two.
        Yeah, let’s forget about all that and start fussing about removing the Eklutna dam and doing away with 90% of Anchorage’s water supply. California is leading us into the future……..

        • Because I find it amusing. Additionally, I like to keep my BS detector well honed, so I visit websites, like MRAK, on both extremes of the political spectrum, and I’ll read an article and ask myself, OK, what’s the authors real intent with this piece? Is it intellectually honest and factually accurate? It’s a good exercise.

    • Liz, the point is that the fire chief spent too much of her work time on DEI initiatives and not enough time on her actual job of fire prevention and preparation. Not that she is gay.

    • Liz, the question you need to ask yourself is this, the LAFD chief wrote a 21 page memo complaining to the mayor that her budget was cut by $18 million, whether that is true is in dispute, but the memo exists according to several reports I have seen. I don’t care if the LAFD chief is an alien from outer space, but I expect her to do her job and allocate resources to meet the demands of the mission of fighting fires in LA. I wonder how much of taxpayer money was spent on DEI work shops, mandatory training, its administrative structure etc., that could have been better spent to cover over-time and pilot training. Tasks that according to the chief had to go by the wayside because of lack of funds…..

    • this ‼️‼️‼️as an LA resident whose family is evacuated, correlation does not equal causation 🤦🏼‍♀️

  5. Anchorage is making all the same mistakes for the same reasons. People voting union hoping for an extra .5% benefit package increase are going to deliver us rolling blackouts and water shortages when our dumbass assembly dismantles Eklutna hydro.

    • Hear! Hear!
      The Eklutna village is leading us into a repeat of the Klamath River de-damming paradise. Heck, who needs water, anyway?

  6. DEI is a cancer that infects and slowly kills every organization in which it is implemented. It takes longer, much longer, in government because the funding is nearly inexhaustible. At least in the private sector, the death of the company is swift. As it should be. The sooner America ditches this racist DEI, the better off we will all be.

      • Maybe, in an idealized world where there is no human prejudices and biases.
        .
        We do not live in that world. Here, in reality, DEI has turned into lowering standards and overlooking qualifications. It is, in real world practice, hiring people because of what they are, not what they do.
        .
        There are no longer doors closed solely because of someone’s sexual orientation. If you are qualified and have the skills, you get the job. But, not under DEI rules… Nope, instead of hiring the most qualified individual, DEI requires you to hire the most LGBTQWERTYish one.

        • Oh, I don’t know. I worked in an industry that was all white guys for decades, but that eventually started to change and employ women and minorities. These were people with advanced degrees. I can say with 100% certainty that they were all just as competent as I was, as well as the other white guys I worked with. And in many cases they were more diligent since they weren’t part of the Good Ol’ Boy network. I eventually reported to several women and other minority folks who were just excellent managers.

          I don’t know where you work, but this has been my personal experience with efforts to make the workplace more diverse and inclusive.

          You can’t deny that the idea behind DEI is just, fair, and lofty in its ambition. Is it perfect? No. Should it eventually be retired? Of course. But for now, it has done a lot of good.

          Obviously you don’t have first-hand experience with DEI, or you have soured on it – perhaps because you’ve seen incompetence ascribed to it, of feel cheated for having been passed over for a position in the past. That’s too bad.

          Oh, and one more detail: In many cases, it’s categorically impossible to define and select “the most qualified person for the job”. If you have any experience hiring, as I do, you will have seen situations where the Golden Candidate was selected, only be found unfit later down the road.

          It’s not a white man’s world anymore. Give everyone a chance.

          • I see your problem there dog.
            You worked in an industry that was overwhelmingly white guys, and you assumed it was because of bias and prejudice on the part of the hiring managers. The problem is your assumption.
            .
            I do not have a problem with the “idea” of DIE. I have a problem with the application of it. Do not discriminate against people because of race, culture, sexual orientation, religion, etc.. that is fine. Hire them because of it, is not.
            .
            And, I do have experience with DIE hires. I personally know managers who were informed by upper management to hire a person that checked specific boxes, regardless of their qualifications, and I have seen the disruption that causes.
            Tell me, do you think it is perfectly OK for the little league coach to make his son the pitcher for no reason other then it is his son? Do you think that team will win a lot of games? Do you think the other team members are happy with that decision?
            How is that different than DIE hiring?
            .
            Everyone has a chance.
            Artificially improving one person’s chances above another for no valid reason is not acceptable in any way. Hiring a person because they are black is just as racist as firing them for the same reason.

          • Whidbey: The Civil Rights act passed in 1964 did give every single citizen a chance.
            DEI excludes white people who, get this, are the majority in America.

            Forcing the minority to be given preference is like going to China and demanding all white people be given preference over Chinese people.

            You liberals need to learn empathy.

      • It should not exist as an initiative.
        Debt? What debt? Debt to who? Debt for what?
        .
        Are you seriously thinking that DEI hiring is somehow erasing past offenses? Really? I find that near impossible to believe. You are smarter than that, but… maybe not. Let me lay it for you.
        .
        It was absolutely unacceptable that in the past people who were well qualified for a job did not get it because of their sexual orientation. Instead the job went to a straight person who was not equally qualified. The practice is abhorrent. It is an absolute injustice.
        .
        But, you are now saying that a person who is well qualified for a position should lose that position to a lesser qualified individual because they are heterosexual? That will somehow erase the past injustice?
        .
        That is perhaps the stupidest concept I have ever heard of. I learned early in my childhood development that two wrongs do not make a right. But, here you are. Saying that it is OK to commit an injustice because an equivalent injustice was committed in the past.
        .
        In fact, of the two injustices, the one you are advocating for is the worse injustice. You are aware of the injustice that happened in the past, and you are duplicating it? Did you learn nothing from the past?

      • Let me guess.
        You also support reparations for slavery, right?
        .
        Because whites once enslaved blacks in this nation, you now think it is OK to enslave whites? Oh.. I know… reparations are not enslavement… False.
        .
        Reparations take the fruits of a persons labor away from them against their will and provides them to people who have not earned them. How, is that different than slavery? Hint… it is not different at all.
        .
        But, I bet you still support it. Because in your mind, creating an even larger injustice is the only way to erase an injustice that happened in the past.

      • Tell me, Whidbey:
        Would you be OK with Jews killing off every German they see until 6 million Germans are dead?
        I doubt it. But, you are OK with DEI because it pays off a debt?
        .
        For someone who is all about fairness, you have a funny way of showing it.

  8. Unfortunate and irresponsible journalism. The LA area has recieved a quarter inch of rain in 9 months and they are getting hurricane force winds. You could have the biggest alpha male in charge and the outcome would have been the same. You can’t possibly plan for these conditions.

    • Cman
      It’s a good thing you are not a firefighter.
      There are prevention measures that were not taken like get rid of the dead brush
      Use rain water to help fill reservoirs
      Hire enough firefighters not fire them for not wanting experimental drugs shot into them.
      Don’t cut the budget and ship off a bunch of supplies to Ukraine.
      Sorry cman your argument doesn’t hold water again

    • You can plan ahead, as was done many years ago with proper fuels management, preplanning/preparing fuel breaks and water storage, staging for quick aggressive initial attack, and LE66 inspection/remediation programs in the uildland/urban interface…eco activists have destroyed those catastrophe prevention days and we’re now seeing the results…you may not like the factual reporting on this design for disaster but, to those of us in fire management for decades, it is obvious and irrefutable. The FC’s focus on DEI distracts from the FD’s primary mission and is inexcusable. LAFD’s hiring policies based upon promotion of sexual preference over job skills are now reaping the predictable results…🔥

    • It is not all about the rainfall.
      What about CA removing dams and allowing reservoirs to dry up? If I remember correctly Newsom had a dam removed to protect some species of fish, and that action actually destroyed the fish in that river. Would have to check on that one though.
      .
      Then there is the LA Mayor cutting the fire department budget by about $18M. I may be wrong, but having a full budget just might assist in preventing fires from starting.
      .
      Additionally, there is the refusal to remove dead underbrush along utility corridors and public areas.
      .
      Finally, hiring on a qualified firefighter would result in planning for EXACTLY these types of conditions. Every fire is preventable or containable, but the people who know how to stop them need to be allowed to take the proper steps beforehand. They were not in LA, net result… well… I guess climate change caused it. Yeah… that works. (What a crock of s.. tuff.)

        • The budget wasn’t cut, it was increased by about $53 million in the current fiscal year. Also, LA does not get most of its water from any snowpack melt from the mountains coming from the northern pat of the state. Its gets it from a 112 year old aqueduct and from groundwater, the latter of which would obviously be low after almost zero rainfall in the last 9 months to recharge it.

          • That’s not the info I am receiving. Sorry, but pretty much every news outlet is telling me the budget was cut. So, stop spreading misinformation.

          • Actually, I took another look around, and pretty much every news outlet, including a Newsweek fact check says the budget was cut. They do state it was not cut by $23M as reported on socials, but by $17M approximately.
            .
            So… Not sure were you are getting your misinformation from but you need to check your sources.

    • Don’t be so daft Cman.

      California has had fires every year for several years now. If they haven’t planned for this type of situation, it is by design.

      Trump in his first term brought attention to this and warned us all that if California didn’t clean things up and prepare properly, it would continue to happen.

      Also, much of this is not natural. There have been arsonists caught for starting fires in the years past.

      They want you, the sheep, to think this is all due to climate change. It is not.

      And please spare us with the lack of rain water BS. We all know that cloud seeding technology has been around since at least the fourties. If they wanted to, they could make it rain almost on command. They spray the skies not for the benefit of the earth and its inhabitants. No dear child, they do it to further enslave the world.

      Wake up you silly fool.

      • The tenor of your reply shows who the real fool is. If all you can do is resort to name-calling and vague statements about what Trump has said and (gasp) about cloud seeding (which is limited in its effectiveness and can only provide a little assistance and not just create storms or sufficient rainfall to make up for drought), then you really aren’t really interested in an informed discussion. Have a nice day.

    • They certainly can’t plan for these weather conditions but they certainly can and did let the water flow out of the reservoirs to protect the smelt run up the river? Now that was a smart plan.
      I guess the smelt have priority over peoples lives and property.

      Sounds like the Anchorage Assembly’s plan to demo Eklutna dam to protect the salmon run.
      Who needs water and electricity in the aftermath of a 9+ earthquake anyway?

      • The two are not related. LA gets most of its water from a century old aqueduct and from groundwater, which obviously would be running low after almost zero rainfall in the area in the last 9 months.

    • “…….The LA area has recieved a quarter inch of rain in 9 months and they are getting hurricane force winds…….”
      Climate change, anybody? But that’s no change at all. It’s par for that course. There have been droughts and Santana (not Santa Ana) winds there for the past 30,000 years or so. And they had record rains and a declared end to the 20+ year drought for the previous two winters. Where did that water go?

    • So, they got a quarter inch of rain over the last nine months.
      Is this some kind of a surprise to the Mayor and Fire Chief? Did they not know that fact?
      .
      I have to assume they knew the low rainfall amount. It would be impossible for them not to.
      .
      Yet, they did NOTHING to prepare for wildfires. Not a damned thing. Zero, zip, nada. The fire chief instead focused on diversity. Could have located emergency sources of water, could have filled the reservoirs, could have made arrangements for other firefighting resources. But, instead, she focused on keeping qualified individuals out of her department in the name of woke.

  9. What a load of cr*p. Not even a full, well-funded team of all white, ripped, macho, MAGA male firefighters could stop what’s going on right now. It’s 100 mph winds, folks, and tinder-dry hillsides. Shame on the author for writing such preposterous and divisive drivel.

    Oh, and the amount of water in storage and therefore available to hydrants has nothing to do with DEI or the sexual preferences of the firefighters. Water systems aren’t designed for everyone to be using firewater at the same time.

    As far as I can see, Nick Pope is a weirdo UFO investigator from the UK. Chief Crowley, on the other hand has extensive training in the sciences, organizational leadership, firefighting, public policy, and is also an EMT. She sounds like just the person you WANT in charge of your fire department.

    What a waste of white space.

    • If they hired a fire chief based on qualifications instead of sexual orientation, that well qualified fire chief would have taken appropriate steps to prevent the fire from starting in the first place, and if it did start, from spreading out of control.
      .
      Instead, what the individual was became more important than what the individual did. And, we have wildfires.

        • I have.
          Have you?
          .
          I have seen containable forest fires, and those that have run out of control for weeks. I can also identify the difference between the two, and it almost always boils down to proper preparation and management. Especially when it gets close to human settlements.
          .
          No, there is not much you can do to prevent a forest fire in the wilderness. But, there are significant steps you can take to prevent it from engulfing residential areas. And, apparently, LA and CA could not be bothered to do that.

        • You jump to defend anyone that enjoys your same aberrant sexual preference and you stretch logic to the point that your comments lose merit… as is the case above.

          Having seen a forest fire (or not) doesn’t outweigh the need to objectively evaluate a fire chief’s management ability as opposed to determining that their social proclivities alone make them qualified. The same dyke stated clearly that in a fire emergency she would sooner tell a man that he shouldn’t have been in the area of a fire rather than toss him over her shoulder and trot out of the bldg. This is a position where physical fitness, strength and commitment are paramount life safety tenets. She’s not only unqualified; she’s psychologically unfit for the post.

          Defend away though, sure.

          • In dog’s world, he has it all figured out.
            And when anyone scores a point against his logic, he has to search for reasons to dismiss the point. It’s no different than the person who points out a spelling error in a comment, thereby dismissing every point made. (“Look, he used their instead of there. Which means everything else he wrote is invalid.”) That logic works for children, errr…. I mean wokesters, but not for adults.

    • “……..Oh, and the amount of water in storage and therefore available to hydrants has nothing to do with DEI or the sexual preferences of the firefighters……..”
      What’s the DEI policy and priority of the LACWD?

  10. Let’s see… here’s my list of job positions that must never be filled using ANY manner of DEI hiring criteria.
    1. President of the USA
    2. Any other public office holder, from governors down to and including sanitation department laborers…
    3. Any physician, surgeon, nurse, orderly, pharmacist, and hospital janitor…
    4. Any airline pilot, aircrew member, aircraft mechanic, fueler, baggage handler, and cabin meal preparer…
    5. Lots and lots more… it would takes hours or days to list the thousands of job positions for which DEI hiring decisions are anathema.

    However, I have no problem with DEI hiring preferences for any job position that will serve only those same sorts of persons. For example, as someone once said, ‘let the blind lead the blind,’ provided they are all agreeable to it.

    Otherwise, there must be only two primary qualities used for deciding on personnel hiring and promotion – the candidates’ education/training/experience and character. Maybe throw in the quality of ‘grooming,’ too; facial tattoos can be grotesque.

  12. Did I just hear they let the water out of the reservoir to protect the smelt run?
    Well thankfully they will have fish to eat in the aftermath.

    • If I understand correctly, that action actually harmed the smelt. Pushed them to near extinction level on the impacted streams.
      .
      There are now, if I am correct, less smelt than there was before they drained the reservoirs.

  13. Get a load of Biden in the video, “I’m a great-grandfather today.”
    How did we ever get this huge, mega POS into the White House?

  14. LGBTQ firepersons. Grab your pink thong underwear first. Get into your high heel boots. Check to make sure your make-up is on correctly. Swish your way to the fire pole. Slide down slowly. See the fire. Go to the fire. Ooops too hot. Melting your make-up. Go back to fire house with emergency lights on.
    😆

    • Dont be so hard on the Chief.
      She went on TV to let evryone know the terrorist just plain outsmarted her by driving around the police car that was blocking vehicle traffic.
      How would anyone suspect someone would use the sidewalk to ram dozens of people?

  16. I confess, I’m not a “religious Nut”, but when I saw all this happening it’s hard to believe, but this looks like Genesis 19, where ”Sodom and Gomorah” was destroyed for all it’s “unhealthy living”.. I know some don’t literally believe what hapened in Gen 19, but it’s seems to be happening before our eyes?.

  17. Lets see how fast FEMA gets to the Democratic California unlike the slow leak to the Republican North Carolina and Florida

  19. “……..The LAFD has implemented an internal “racial equity plan,” subjected employees to diversity training and is currently led by Chief Kristin Crowley, “the first female and LGBTQ Fire Chief in the LAFD”……..”
    But she’s white. Can’t that racist society find a black female lesbian?

    • Never mind that she has decades of experience in the LAFD and is a decorated firefighter. Guess that does play into your calculus? The way people of your ilk have been talking, you think she was just handed the job right out of the academy. That is not the case.

      • You’re new around here cman, but I see that you’re catching on that logic is not the coin of the realm with MAGA folks.

      • Decades of experience as a fire fighter does not equate into good management. And, her choices of who she hired, and why she hired those people are the issue.

  20. She was not recruited due to DEI. She joined the LAFD 25 years ago! During her time at the department, she has held the roles of firefighter, paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain, battalion chief, assistant chief, fire marshal and deputy chief.

    How is she not qualified?

    • Her experience is not the issue here.
      Her choices on how she managed the department are. Who she hired, and why is the issue. She openly placed DIE qualifications above actual experience and skills. Was proud to do so. Her department’s ability to fight a fire suffered because of it.

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