(Originally published at 7:54 p.m. November 26, 2013; updated at 1:21 p.m. November 29.)

The public battle between the local county Sheriff Terry Maketa and Bob Harvey, the Fire Chief responsible for the first two hours of the initial attack of the Black Forest Fire in Colorado Springs continues to heat up. On November 21 we wrote about the disagreement between the two over the cause of the fire. Now the Sheriff is criticizing the Fire Chief for not agreeing within the first two hours of the fire to turn it over to him.

The fire killed two people, destroyed 486 homes, and damaged 37 others in June.

Colorado is one of a few states that have the ridiculous policy of assigning the suppression of wildfires in unincorporated areas to the county employee with law enforcement responsibilities in those areas — the County Sheriff — rather than a person with expertise in fire suppression.

The video above is part one of a three part series by KRDO.

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(UPDATED at 10:26 a.m. MT, November 27, 2013)

KRDO has published parts two and three of the three-part series. The videos are below.

And as you will see in the video below, a petition is circulating at several businesses in the area calling for the immediate dismissal of Fire Chief Bob Harvey. This is occurring after blistering attacks by Sheriff Terry Maketa and many stories on KRDO News Channel 13 which presented Sheriff Maketa’s version of the facts. We hope that an impartial, professional investigation discloses what actually happened during the first two hours of the fire, which is the time frame that Sheriff Maketa is criticizing. We also hope that KRDO covers that as well.

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Thanks go out to Micah