As Los Angeles confronts its most devastating fire in history, the fire department’s highly-paid diversity chief is facing severe backlash after a controversial comment resurfaced, appearing to defend DEI hiring by shifting blame onto victims.
In a resurfaced 2019 public relations video, Deputy Chief Kristine Larson, who oversees the Equity and Human Rights Bureau, defended the fire department’s implementation of DEI hiring practices. Larson, who leads the Equity and Human Resources Bureau, then responded to concerns about whether female firefighters could aptly handle carrying a man out of a burning building, saying simply, “He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.”
In the Line of Fire
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The video gained widespread attention on social media after the fire department was caught unprepared when wildfires erupted and began ravaging Pacific Palisades — one of Los Angeles’ oldest and most affluent neighborhoods — last week.
The Palisades Fire, now the most destructive wildfire in California’s history, has already consumed 26,000 acres, including some of the priciest properties in the nation.
Preliminary damage estimates for all the wildfires across Southern California range from $135 billion to $150 billion, surpassing the financial impact of any U.S. hurricane except for Katrina.
Critics claim that the Los Angeles Fire Department had become too focused on DEI-related initiatives to adequately staff and equip its firefighters — initiatives that Larson was paid $307K to oversee in 2023, according to the salary database Transparent California.
“Los Angeles Fire Department Assistant Chief Kristine Larson says when people’s houses are burning down, they want a firefighter to show up who looks like them. Hot take: People just want someone to show up who will stop their house from burning down,” wrote conservative influencer Collin Rugg in an X post containing the infamous video.
“It sounds like parody. People are dying and losing their homes, right now, because of people like this,” commented one user.
No Stopping Backlash
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Meanwhile, another image has also gone viral, featuring Larson alongside two other women: Training and Support Bureau Commander Jaime Brown and Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who is openly lesbian.
These three women are the only members of the 14-person senior leadership team, but they have become symbolic of the LAFD’s focus on diversity.
“This is the leadership team at the Los Angeles Fire Department,” an X account called “Libs of TikTok” wrote alongside the image in a post shared more than 10,000 times.
The surge in DEI hires and diversity initiatives followed years of reported harassment and discrimination within the department.
In 2017, six Black members of the Fire Prevention Bureau filed a lawsuit against the department for discrimination, claiming they faced racially motivated retaliation after speaking out about widespread safety shortcuts and inadequate oversight.
In 2021, a group of firefighters and social justice activists demanded the resignation of Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas, citing “widespread sexism, racism, harassment, and abuse,” particularly against women, according to a veteran firefighter quoted by the LA Times.
Kristin Crowley was promoted to Fire Chief the following year, becoming the first woman to hold the position.
