Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office said the disbanded wildfire team, Team Blaze, was “inadequately trained” despite his administration awarding them for having “exceeded expectations” in 2021, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
Team Blaze, a volunteer wildfire unit, was shut down by the Newsom administration in January 2024, according to the Free Beacon. The disbanding then made the California National Guard incapable of sending a complete force of firefighters to fight the January 2025 wildfire until 10 days after it started, the outlet previously claimed.
Newsom’s press office responded to the Free Beacon’s article on Jan. 24, saying the claim was “absurd.”
“California transitioned a small, inadequately trained volunteer reserve component into a huge professional, highly trained, firefighting force,” the press office stated in a post on…
