BREAKING: Karen Bass fires LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley

"Acting in the best interests of Los Angeles' public safety, and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have removed Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief," Bass said in a statement, per ABC7.

"We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley's watch. Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal. The heroism of our firefighters - during the Palisades fire and every single day - is without question. Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs."

Former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva has been appointed by Bass as interim fire chief.

Bass was confronted in an interview about her choice to go to Ghana when the fires broke out, saying that when she spoke with the fire chief, she was told "that we have warnings of Santa Ana winds a lot, but predicting this, and you saw we from the city, from the county, that level of preparation really didn't happen. So it didn't reach that level, to me to say something terrible could happen, and maybe you shouldn't have gone on the trip."

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