LAFD Asst Chief: If I Have To Carry A Man Out Of A Fire, ‘He Got Himself In the Wrong Place’

LAFD Assistant Chief Kristine Larson, who reportedly makes $399,000 a year and led the charge against former LAFD Chief Ralph Terrazas, accusing him of ignoring complaints from women in the department, appeared in a video in which she said if someone complained about a woman firefighter’s inability to carry a man out of a fire, her response would be, “He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.”

Larson, a lesbian, is “very involved in girls’ fire camps up and down the West Coast which provide leadership, team building and empowerment to young women in high school,” the LAFD states in her bio.

In the video, Larson states, “You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency — whether it’s a medical call or a fire call — that looks like you. It gives that person a little more ease, knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. ‘Is she strong enough to do this?’ Or ‘You couldn’t carry my husband out of a fire.’ Which my response is, ‘He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.’”

In October 2021, LA Downtown News reported that Larson, other female firefighters, and outside coalitions issued a letter to then-Mayor Eric Garcetti, accusing the Los Angeles Fire Department of “rampant sexism, racism and abuse in the ranks that women and minorities routinely face.” The demanded Garcetti terminate Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas.

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Larson was a founding member of Equity on Fire (EOF) coalition; she served as president of Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service. She had criticized the LAFD, saying, “We (the LAFD) have a history of doing bad things to people who report abuses in this organization. … The deep-seated tradition of not ‘ratting’ people out — if that’s what you want to call it — keeps people in fear of not saying anything, and that’s the culture we have to change. If you’re being discriminated against, you should be able to make a complaint, have it validated and have that individual punished. That’s not what’s happening, because people are too afraid to say anything, and they suffer in silence for it.”

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