Actor Denis Leary blasts budget cuts to LA fire department
Actor Denis Leary told the co-hosts of “The View” on Wednesday that the Los Angeles Fire Department experiences budget cuts every year and said they’ve been understaffed for over a decade amid the ongoing wildfires in the area.
“I can tell you this about the LA department. I know this to be true with fire departments across the country,” he said, noting his organization, the Leary Firefighters Foundation, which has been around since 2000. “Every year the request for money from departments around the country, big and small, big city, small town, from my foundation, we get, I can’t even tell you hundreds of requests, and we get more every year.”
The Leary Firefighters foundation provides equipment, training and more to departments across the country. Leary argued that the reason for all the requests was because the fire department budgets were always the first to be cut, noting that firefighters “don’t go on strike,” like other departments might.
“So, one thing I know to be true about, and you’ll hear about this more in the next — as the fires die down, it’s very true in L.A. They — the wildfires get worse every year, they get their budget cut further every year. They have been understaffed for over a decade, right? They have — they had to lay off department mechanics who fixed the broken-down fire trucks,” Leary added.
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Denis Leary details during “The View” what he believes are major problems with the fire departments in Los Angeles. (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
The Los Angeles fire chief warned in a memo in December that a $17.6 million budget cut had plunged the department into “unprecedented operational challenges.”
Chief Kristen Crowley told the press on Friday that the city had failed its residents and that they had been understaffed and underfunded for years.
“We are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community,” she said.
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A California Department of Corrections hand crew works containment lines ahead of the Palisades Fire Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025 in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Leary also spoke to concerns that there were fire hydrants that ran dry, into which Gov. Gavin Newsom has launched an investigation.
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“Listen, this is coming from a firefighter point of view. It doesn’t matter if the hydrants worked or not. That fire, 100-mile-per-hour winds, it was a hurricane of fire. There’s not enough water in the ocean to put that out, okay. So forget about that issue. Let’s wait till — I always say let’s wait till the things die down, and the fire department will tell you, and you’ll find out what the problems are,” the actor said.
