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

Fire-ravaged California is grappling with the threat of floods, mudslides, and toxic ash this week as the state’s embattled leaders face more questions about their decision to dismantle an emergency response volunteer firefighting unit—and now attempt to erase its existence.

In the latest twist, the website and social media accounts for the firefighting unit, known as Team Blaze, 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.

Shortly after Newsom appointed Matthew Beevers as adjutant general of the California Military Department in July 2022, Beevers decommissioned the Emergency Response Command, a highly trained joint command consisting of two volunteer units, according to Maj. Gen. Jay Coggan, retired commanding general of the California State Guard.

Prior to Beevers’ decision, Emergency Response Command included Team Blaze, a firefighting detachment with two years of training to operate five fire engines specially designed to fight wildfires in terrain like that of Los Angeles and act as firefighting hand crews.

More than 300 wildfires in Los Angeles and other areas of Southern California have killed at least 28 people, destroyed approximately 16,000 structures, and burned over 57,000 acres, according to CAL FIRE.

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

The Daily Signal reported Jan. 16 that Beevers dismantled the volunteer firefighting force, which could have joined Los Angeles firefighters in putting out the flames that destroyed more than 40,000 acres and took at least 28 lives. 

Beevers’ decision eliminated Team Blaze’s autonomy, and it was slashed in size; some members were moved under National Guard unit Task Force Rattlesnake.  

On Jan. 19, Newsom held an emergency meeting with the heads of the military department to discuss the demise of Team Blaze, high-level military sources told Coggan. Newsom’s office and the California Military Department did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for confirmation of this meeting.

On Jan. 20, Team Blaze’s website, which was hosted on a California government site, was taken down, according to Coggan. According to a WayBack Machine search, the site formerly described the volunteer force as “a Type II fire line handcrew, ready to respond to any area of California when needed.”

Team Blaze’s Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) accounts are also no longer in existence.

The California Military Department did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about the removal of Team Blaze’s website and social media accounts.

The former website says Team Blaze members received “military training and experience.”

The Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Kerr and Susannah Luthi reported that Beevers cut a critical line of funding for Team Blaze through a January 2023 ruling that prohibited the State Guard from accepting “gifts” from the California State Guard Foundation, a charity run by Coggan that provided firefighting equipment for the force and covered the training costs for its volunteers.

After Kerr’s report, Newsom’s press office said on X that “California transitioned a small, inadequately trained volunteer reserve component into a huge professional, highly trained, firefighting force.”

But Team Blaze was highly trained, Coggan told The Daily Signal.

“We were certified by National Wildfire Coordinating Group to all the standards necessary for Cal Fire for wildfire training,” Coggan said, “and several people were certified to actually be trainers for them.”

Team Blaze trained up to four days per month, and members were only paid when deployed, not during training, according to Coggan.

The California Military Department even charged the California State Guard Foundation for the meals of State Guard members who trained at their training camps, according to invoices shared with The Daily Signal.

The unit’s members had two years of training and certification to be able to operate five wildland engines which were loaned to Team Blaze by the state’s Office of Emergency Services free of charge. Had Team Blaze been inadequately trained, OES would not have loaned them the engines, Coggan said.

Additionally, if the unit was “inadequately trained,” it would not have been deployed to respond to the 2021 Dixie Fire, the largest single-source wildfire in California’s history, according to Coggan.

The now-defunct Team Blaze website said members received both fire service and military training.

“We are seeking people who want to be Solider/Firefighters,” the website said. “All of our training is transferable to a career in Fire Service, EMS or Emergency Management. The real world experience of being out on the fire line, on some of California’s largest fires is invaluable. The military leadership training one receives will help people be successful in any career and in any leadership role.”

Of the Team Blaze members, 80 were certified for woodland firefighting by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, Coggan said. The NWCG did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

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.

The state legislature’s joint committee asked Coggan to address the committee at a hearing on Feb. 1, 2023, regarding the emergency response capabilities of the California State Guard. Coggan asked Beevers for permission to attend, and the director of government affairs for the California Military Department, Darrin Bender, told Coggan to ask former Assemblyman Mike Gatto to “stand down.”

Bender seemingly assumed Gatto was involved in the request, though he had already left the state assembly, Coggan said. Gatto’s last year in the state assembly was in 2016, according to Ballotpedia.

“I’m pretty sure Mike Gatto is lobbying committees in an effort to get the CSG more political exposure,” the Jan. 21 email to Coggan from Bender obtained by The Daily Signal says. “I met with Mike a couple months ago and asked him not to speak to elected’s or staff about Department matters without letting me know, but I don’t think he got the message.”

Gatto declined to comment on the record to The Daily Signal.

In his response to Bender, Coggan said it would be illegal to ask any state legislator to “stand down.” Still, Coggan agreed not to appear before the state assembly.

“I have no ability to request Mike Gatto, or for that matter anyone in the CSG, from communicating in their personal capacity with members of the legislature,” Coggan said. “You well know that is expressly proscribed by the Military & Veterans Code. It would be as unlawful for me to tell Mike Gatto do such as it would be if you told members of the legislature or their staff that our CSG members could get in trouble for talking to them.”

Coggan believes Bender’s effort to lessen the State Guard’s public exposure resulted from Beevers’ distaste for the State Guard. Bender did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Beevers is known to have a distaste for the State Guard, Coggan said. Under Beevers, the State Guard uniform changed so it no longer looks like the National Guard. 

“They changed our command structure,” a senior enlisted leader who asked to remain anonymous told The Daily Signal. “They took whole commands out of the [California State Guard]. They removed a lot of senior positions. They made policy that no CSG commander could be the same rank or outrank the National Guard counterpart. In every way possible, they made us less than.” 

California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Brandon Hill disputed to the Washington Free Beacon that Team Blaze was disbanded, saying the force was “incorporated” into Task Force Rattlesnake “as their reserve detachment.”

Hill previously told The Daily Signal that California State Guard’s “organization changed to better align with their mission set in supporting the California Army and Air National Guard components as well as our joint task forces.” 

“The California State Guard (CSG) is actively supporting during this unprecedented wildfire response,” Hill wrote in an email on Jan. 16. “Currently, CSG service members are supporting wildfires on hand crews assigned to our Task Force Rattlesnake and in other support missions.”

Task Force Rattlesnake deployed 14 of its Type I handcrews to Los Angeles after Newsom activated the National Guard to fight the wildfires, Hill told the Free Beacon. While Type I handcrews put out wildfires where they stand, they count on the support of Type II handcrews working behind them.

Team Blaze included a force of Type II handcrews and five frontline wildland fire engines.

But when Beevers disbanded it in early 2024, the California National Guard had no Type II handcrews on standby, and the fire engines, which would have been capable of traveling up the Palisades’ winding hill roads, were not available.

As a result, Rattlesnake’s Type I handcrews had to fight the 2025 wildfires without the support of Type II handcrews from the California National Guard. 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, including the firefighting unit, to cross train at Camp San Luis Obispo in May, he told The Daily Signal.

When Beevers was advised of the cross training, he told Coggan not to invite media or anyone from the legislature, Coggan said.

However, when Beevers prohibited the State Guard from accepting “gifts” from the California State Guard Foundation, the training did not happen.

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