Los Angeles cut $17.5M from fire department budget months before deadly fires

Seven months before the uncontrolled Palisades Fire in Los Angeles, the city's fire department budget for this fiscal year was cut by more than $17.5 million, records show.

Mayor Karen Bass signed the City of Los Angeles' budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The total budget for the city's fire department was $819.64 million.

Records show that for the previous fiscal year, the LAFD's total budget was $837.2 million. The total budget includes salaries, expenses and equipment.

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The city's controller, Kenneth Mejia, posted a graphic on X in October confirming the fire department's budget was cut by $17.6 million. The graphic also showed that the city's police department budget increased by $126 million.

"This budget serves as a reset, in part by continuing to hire for critical positions including police officers and firefighters while eliminating some of the department's vacant positions, thereby prioritizing our City family over empty desks," Bass said in a statement in June.

At least five people are dead and many more injured as several fires broke out across Southern California amid historically dry and windy conditions.

More than 7,500 firefighters have been deployed to battle at least six major wildfires dotted around the Los Angeles area, along with several smaller blazes.

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