California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) defended his administration’s decision to disband a wildfire team in early 2024 by denigrating the unit as "inadequately trained." Military records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show that Newsom’s administration gave the unit an award for "outstanding performance" that cited its exemplary "wildland firefighting training."
The Newsom administration shut down Team Blaze, a volunteer wildfire unit under Newsom’s command, in January 2024. The move rendered the California National Guard incapable of sending a complete firefighting detachment to fight the Los Angeles fires until 10 days after the flames broke out, the Free Beacon reported. In response to that report, Newsom’s press office on Jan. 24 disparaged the former firefighters of Team Blaze, calling the disbanded unit a "small, inadequately trained volunteer reserve component" that wasn’t fit to fight wildfires in California.
But military records obtained by the Free Beacon show that just years ago the Newsom administration considered Team Blaze to be anything but "inadequately trained." And former members of the unit who put their lives on the line battling some of the largest wildfires in California state history said they were incensed that Newsom denigrated their service.
"How can they justify saying anything bad," one former Team Blaze firefighter told the Free Beacon. "They literally gave them a medal for being the best unit in the California State Guard."
Indeed, Team Blaze and its firefighters in November 2021 received an Outstanding Unit Citation—the highest available unit award in the California State Guard—that recognized the unit’s "reputation of outstanding performance."
The award credited Team Blaze for its exhaustive training efforts and distinguished service fighting the 2021 Dixie Fire, the largest wildfire in California state history. Team Blaze provided California with the "full spectrum of wildland firefighting," with the unit’s trained firefighters participating in "hotshot" Type I handcrews as well as supporting Type II handcrews during the Dixie Fire.
"Members of Team Blaze completed such advanced and diverse fire curriculum prior to activation that 100% of all members passed CAL FIRE wildland firefighting training," the Outstanding Unit Citation read. "By providing the full spectrum of wildland firefighting, Team Blaze established a reputation of outstanding performance."
"Team Blaze has far exceeded expectations," the award stated.
Newsom provided a more critical characterization of Team Blaze's firefighting capabilities as he faced criticism over his administration’s decision to disband the unit in January 2024.
Newsom convened an emergency meeting on Jan. 19 with Adjutant General Matthew Beevers, his appointed head of the California National Guard, to discuss why the Guard shut down Team Blaze in 2024, according to a source briefed on the meeting. By the next day, information about Team Blaze hosted on California government websites, as well as the unit’s Facebook, Instagram, and X pages, were taken offline, the Daily Signal reported.
After the Newsom administration disbanded Team Blaze in January 2024, the California Guard was left with no standby force of Cal Fire-trained Type II handcrews available to support the force’s "hotshot" Type I crews that were deployed to Los Angeles when the fires broke out on Jan. 7. As the city burned, the Guard had to send 200 soldiers to Camp Roberts, situated 220 miles north of Los Angeles, to receive Cal Fire Type II handcrew training. Those freshly trained soldiers arrived in the city on Jan. 17, according to a now-deleted Facebook post from the California Guard.
Former California State Guard commanding general Jay Coggan said that 10 day delay could have been avoided had the Newsom administration not disbanded Team Blaze in January 2024. Coggan said the trained firefighters of Team Blaze could have been on the ground in Los Angeles performing Type II handcrew duties within hours of the outbreak of the flames.
"I’m angry at what they said about my soldiers and airmen. Inadequately trained?" Coggan said. "The state guard is made up of over 1,200 dedicated volunteers who just want to keep people safe. They were so disrespected by the governor."
The Newsom administration had nothing but good things to say about Team Blaze before the governor denigrated the unit as "inadequately trained" in January. Beevers, the Newsom-appointed commander of the California National Guard, in 2022 praised Team Blaze as a "strike team" that "builds upon the state’s response efforts during times of need." And former Newsom spokesman Brian Ferguson hailed the unit as a "creative way to increase our firefighting capacity & ability to protect communities."
Team Blaze came at virtually no cost to California taxpayers. The all-volunteer force of firefighters maintained their Cal Fire certification year-round at their own expense. They only received payment when activated to fight a wildfire. Team Blaze reported directly to Newsom, the commander in chief of the California State Guard.
Team Blaze offset the costs to its volunteer firefighters through charitable donations from the California State Guard Foundation, an outside charity run by Coggan. But in January 2023, Beevers, who has faced accusations of denigrating Coggan as a "kike lawyer" in private, deemed it illegal for the charity to provide free firefighting equipment to Team Blaze.
"The State Guard had previously accepted funds illegally," California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Brandon Hill told the Free Beacon in 2024. "This practice was stopped by Major General Beevers."
Newsom’s office did not return a request for comment.