First of all, I agree that the investigators should have more credibility than a local sheriff with a possible political agenda. Although he is at the end of his term limit and cannot be re-elected, I still agree with you on that.
Retired Greenwood Village Police Commander Dave Fisher, one of the investigators hired by the Black Forest board said “nothing could have been done to stop this fire.”
That's a strange thing to hear. Is it still going? The fire WAS stopped after large amounts of resources were authorized and brought in. The question was why did it take so long? The reason for the investigation was to see why it took so long to ask for them and why it took so long to hand over control to the county and state. The Chief and investigators' answer was that the fire was "out of control" and that is a bad time to hand over control. What??? That doesn't even make sense for a fire of that magnitude. But that is what this report has as an excuse for this chief dragging his feet and not handing over control so additional resources could be brought in.
Everyone knows, the quicker you get more resources on a fire, the less damage it will cause, and the quicker it can be stopped. Maybe one more house could have been saved or two more people could have lived. The local residents that lost their home are definitely not satisfied with this "report" and how much it cost ($50,000) for very little detail.
Additionally, The Black Forest Fire Board and Chief Harvey said initially that he passed command to the Sheriff's Office at 3:10 p.m. However, the Black Forest Fire Board's investigator agreed with Maketa's timeline of the fire's initial hours and said the board was incorrect. The investigator's report said Harvey passed command to the Sheriff's Office between 3:45 and 3:55. That is one thing that the investigators did accomplish was to prove that what the Sheriff put out in his timeline was correct and that the board and the Chief was incorrect with the time and the board and the chief were wrong when they called the Sheriff a liar about the times.