Just when you thought Gavin Newsom’s fecklessness and malice in the most recent California wildfires was as bad as it could get, there’s always more and worse. This time, there’s confirmation that in 2024 Newsom disbanded a highly trained and capable volunteer firefighting team know as Team Blaze.
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The Free Beacon reports that dimwitted decision had real world consequences:
As a result, the California National Guard wasn’t able to get a complete firefighting force to Los Angeles—meaning one that included both firefighters putting out the active blaze and others following in their footsteps to prevent the fires from spreading—until 10 days after the L.A. fires began reducing homes to cinders. We’re not the only news outlet that seems to be on to the story.
Even if they could, they likely would have had no water.
Newsom’s press flacks tried to belittle the Free Beacon’s report, and also claimed Team Blaze was “inadequately trained.”
That’s weird, because the Newsom administration tapped the group to help fight the 2021 Dixie Fire, the largest single-source wildfire in California state history, according to the transcript of a September 2021 National Guard press briefing, and the volunteer unit, which was funded by generous donors, met federal standards for combating wildfires set by a little-known federal agency known as the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.
Far from being “inadequately trained,” it wasn’t long ago when the Newsom administration praised Team Blaze as an integral part of California’s ability to respond to the type of out-of-control wildfires that destroyed the Palisades earlier in January.
Back then, members of the Newsom administration praised Team Blaze as a “strike team” that “builds upon the state’s response efforts during times of need.” Former Newsom spokesman Brian Ferguson hailed the unit as a “creative way to increase our firefighting capacity & ability to protect communities.”
Launched in 2020, Team Blaze was an on-call strike force staffed entirely with certified firefighters of the California State Guard, a volunteer militia force that reports directly to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Team members took training at their own expense and most of their gear was donated by an outside charity. The Team cost California nothing, except when called out to fight fires. The team was on track to have 1000 on its roles across the state. So of course Newsom would have to ban the charity from providing equipment and disband the organization.
If that sounds insane and self-destructive, that’s because it is.
Team Blaze had to return its equipment to the state and many of its firefighters quit, while those that remained were transferred to support a separate state initiative called Task Force Rattlesnake, a senior enlisted leader in the California State Guard told the Free Beacon.
Task Force Rattlesnake is composed of “hotshot” Type I handcrews trained to carry out the most dangerous frontline wildfire duties. Rattlesnake deployed 14 of its Type I handcrews to Los Angeles after Newsom activated the National Guard to help quell the wildfires, California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Brandon Hill told the Free Beacon. Hill disputed that Team Blaze was disbanded, saying the force was “incorporated” into Rattlesnake “as their reserve detachment.”
The best part is Team Blaze had many Type II teams, but since they were disbanded, there were no Type II teams available, and:
That meant Rattlesnake’s Type I handcrews had to battle the flames in Los Angeles for 10 days without the support of Type II handcrews from the California National Guard, because they didn’t exist when the fires broke out on Jan. 7. As flames engulfed the city, the Guard sent 200 soldiers to Camp Roberts—situated 220 miles north of the burning city—where they spent several days learning how to perform the duties of a Type II handcrew, Hill told the Free Beacon.
Apparently, the death of Team Blaze was due to State Guard politics and antisemitism on the part of an acting head of the state National Guard. The Guard’s former, Jewish commander had been an advocate of Team Blaze and obtained outside funding for the team, including five fire engines. Those engines, and the team’s gear, were given to the state, but that would have made no difference in LA, which due to budget cuts to the Fire Department had some 100 engines out for maintenance.
And does Newsom regret his actions? Of course not:
[Guard spokesman Lt. Col Brandon] Hill, speaking on behalf of Newsom’s office on Friday, told the Free Beacon that the administration “does not regret” the moves it made in 2024 that left the California National Guard without a standby force of Type II handcrews. Hill said Team Blaze was ineffective because it had “little to no funding for equipment and maintenance…”
Right. Because Newsom ensured they had no funding, equipment or maintenance. Just once, wouldn’t be nice to see people like Newsom held accountable for their malice?
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
