Does a photo accurately represent the full leadership team at the Los Angeles Fire Department amid the Los Angeles County January 2025 fires? No, that's missing context: The photo posted on social media shows the current fire chief, a deputy chief and a commander from the department, but they are just three of the 14-member leadership team for the department. The post implies that the three women are the only leadership for the organization but there are at least nine men in leadership positions.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the account @LibsofTikTok on X on January 8, 2025. The caption said:
This is the leadership team at the Los Angeles Fire Department.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jan 9 18:37:36 2025 UTC)
Several widespread fires began burning in Los Angeles County on January 7, 2025 (archived here).
The post implies that the three women are the only leadership within the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). The three women in the photo, which was posted on the LAFD flickr page are, from left to right, Fire Chief Kristin Crowley (archived here), Training and Support Bureau Commander Jaime Brown (archived here) and Deputy Chief Kristine Larson (archived here), Equity and Human Resources Bureau.
The leadership members of the LAFD are on the organization webpage (archived here), which shows there are 14 total positions, with nine men and three women in leadership positions pictured, in the screenshot below. Two positions on the leadership team were unfilled at the time of writing.
(Source: LAFD website screenshot taken on Thu Jan 9 18:45:32 2025 UTC)
According to the LAFD organization chart (archived here), there are 13 positions of leadership, with Larson's position not listed on the chart, as this screenshot shows:
(Source: LAFD website screenshot taken on Thu Jan 9 18:40:21 2025 UTC)
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Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to the Los Angeles County fires can be found here.
