>> EVERYONE was angry at me. Even though I had just averted a catastrophe for the company, I made everyone look bad by doing it and particularly because of my status/position on the team.

People can be excessive in both taking credit and placing blame. An appropriate and helpful way to frame this is "the system was configured incorrectly but nobody noticed because the problem never actually happened. It's a good thing the new guy had time to go through things and spotted the problem before it ever happened." No need to crucify the team or exaggerate the value of the new guy.