California’s Volunteer Fire Unit Vanishes From Web, Social Media After Controversial Dismantling

Team Blaze's website and social media accounts vanished in the days after The Daily Signal was first to report on the controversial decision by a high-ranking military appointee of California Gov. Gavin Newsom .

Team Blaze was the nation’s first firefighting strike team, according to a state Office of Emergency Services press release from August 2022 .

The California State Guard Foundation , Coggan ’s charity, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on training and rescue boats for Team Blaze , according to invoices shared with The Daily Signal .

Of the Team Blaze members, 80 were certified for woodland firefighting by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group .

The California National Guard spokesman said the force was “incorporated” into Task Force Rattlesnake “as their reserve detachment”.

Hill told the Free Beacon that these crews didn’t exist when the fires broke out on Jan. 7 , so the guard had to send 200 soldiers to train to perform the duties of a Type II handcrew for several days .

This delayed wildfire response.

In early 2023 , Coggan submitted an operational plan for 1,000 state guard troops to cross train at Camp San Luis Obispo in May .