LA mayor pushes back on report she dismissed city’s fire chief amid raging wildfires

The mayor of Los Angeles is denying a Friday night “exclusive” report that she fired the city’s fire chief at a closed-door meeting earlier in the day.

The pushback from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass came after a Daily Mail article hit Friday evening and, quoting an anonymous source, claimed that the meeting resulted in the city's Fire Chief Kristin Crowley being dismissed.

But that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Shortly after the report emerged, the LA Times reported that a spokesperson for the mayor said that Crowley was not fired, had not resigned, and remained the city’s fire chief.

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“This is false,” the mayor’s office told CNN.

Rumors about Crowley’s fate quickly began to swirl after the fire chief made critical comments about budgeting issues in an interview on Friday with an LA Fox station. In the interview, Crowley said that the mayor’s cuts to her department “did absolutely negatively impact” its ability to respond to the devastating wildfires that continue to rage across California.

At least eleven people have died in the fires, and that number is expected to climb. More than 12,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and more than 150,000 people have been forced to evacuate.

Law enforcement sources told the LA Times many of the smaller fires will turn out to be arson.