A longtime Los Angeles Fire Department leader who is currently the head of the agency’s Valley operations will become the department’s new chief, Mayor Karen Bass confirmed Friday.
Jaime Moore, currently a deputy chief, will take the reins after a lengthy, nationwide search during which the mayor interviewed fire chiefs of other major cities. Bass also visited firehouses, hearing from firefighters on what they were looking for in a chief.
“Jaime Moore is a proven and admired firefighter and executive who will urgently advance an agenda of reform to better prepare LA for major emergencies and upcoming world events, and to improve responses to 911 calls citywide,” Bass said in a statement to The Times.
The announcement comes just months before the first anniversary of the deadly Palisades fire, and as Republican Senators launch a probe into the city’s handling of the disaster. It also comes weeks after federal authorities revealed that the Jan. 7 Palisades fire was a re-ignition of an earlier fire the department had responded to on New Year’s Day.
A Los Angeles native, Moore is a 30-year LAFD veteran who grew up speaking Spanish and English, and has said he is proud of his Latino background.
He attended UCLA and got a degree in sociology and earned a masters in Public Administration from Cal State, Long Beach.
Moore describes himself as a “progressive” fire service leader in his LAFD bio.
“Chief Moore… advocates education, the importance of knowing your job, and promotes empathy towards others and kindness to all,” his bio reads.
Moore has worked as a public information officer and also as the head of the department’s FireStatLA bureau, overseeing performance management at the department.
He also helped create the LAFD’s Equity and Human Resources bureau and has said he is dedicated to improving diversity, equity and inclusion at the fire department.
The decision comes at a pivotal moment for the department as it inches closer to the one year anniversary of the devastating Palisades fire. The department has undergone a series of significant changes since then.
Following the fire, the mayor ousted then-Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, citing the department head’s lack of communication with the mayor as one reason for her demotion. Since then, the department has been run by Interim Chief Ronnie Villanueva.
Following the release of a 70-page city report on the fire response early this month, Bass announced that from now on, Los Angeles firefighters will remain on duty for an additional shift during red flag weather warnings. The mandatory protocol was instituted after top fire officials failed to pre-deploy engines to Pacific Palisades in advance of the devastating Jan. 7 fire.
The department also faces scrutiny of its union, which had numerous members of its top staff suspended over allegations of improper use of the union’s credit cards. The suspended union president announced his plan to sue the mayor Thursday over what he called retaliatory actions by the mayor after he criticized her.
While LAFD’s budget went up overall, the fire department also lost certain positions and bureaus this year as the city council tried to balance a $1 billion budget shortfall.
The department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion bureau was axed and so were the department’s Emergency incident technicians, who played a key role in coordinating responses to fires.
