A livid El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa blasted a report released Friday by the Black Forest Fire/Rescue Protection District on last summer’s fire, calling it “garbage, slanderous” and saying “it needs to be burned.”

Severe accusations were leveled in the more than 2,000-page report, including one that said resources were ordered in secret to protect the home of an El Paso County sheriff’s commander while other houses nearby burned to the ground.

Also, the report — compiled by independent investigator Dave Fisher, who was hired by the Black Forest Fire Board — said there was the possibility that the fire might be linked to the devastating Waldo Canyon fire of 2012, and that evidence showing such a connection was not necessarily pursued by the sheriff’s office.

The Black Forest fire, which started the afternoon of June 11, burned more than 18,000 acres, destroyed 488 homes and killed two people.

In a heated 50-minute news conference, Maketa said he considered the report “$50,000 of taxpayers’ money full of inaccuracies” done by a “PR firm, not an investigative authority.”

“Mr. Fisher, check your facts,” Maketa said sternly.

Maketa said he had not read the entire report himself, adding, “I probably will not read it because it’s a waste of my time.”

The first bombshell allegation in Fisher’s report stated that a fire crew was ordered to take “a very key piece of equipment from Falcon Fire, their 2,000-gallon ‘tactical tender,’ ” the first night of the blaze and return to a highly dangerous area — despite the crew’s protest — on a “secret special assignment,” which was solely to protect a home. That home was later revealed to be that of Bob McDonald, the acting commander of emergency services for El Paso County.

McDonald was the supervisor of Incident Cmdr. Scott Campbell, according to the report.

Steve Thyme, a member of El Paso Wildland Team, told fire crews that their assignment came “from the top,” which, the report claims, meant Campbell.

Neither the address nor the homeowner’s name was to be “aired over any radio channel” when the order was given, according to the report.

Thyme declined to be interviewed by Fisher for the report.

Maketa and Campbell said the report misconstrued the facts, saying crews were told to save any home they could. Four homes in the immediate area of McDonald’s were saved by the same crew, Maketa said.

According to the report, McDonald’s property was well mitigated, and its sprinklers were on, so the trucks never needed to put any water on the commander’s house. However, a home directly to the south of McDonald’s home was destroyed by the fire.

“Protecting a public official’s home at the expense of other residences is poor decision-making at best,” the report said.

Maketa said the mitigation done in that area made the spot a good location for crews to work near, avoiding areas that would put their lives at greater risk.

Maketa was enraged by an underlined statement in the report saying he, McDonald and two women visited the house the next morning. While they did visit the area to check conditions, the only passenger with Maketa was his wife, he said.

Maketa apologized to McDonald, who attended the news conference, for the commander’s name being smeared by “sinister” lies.

The claim that there might be a connection between the Waldo Canyon fire and Black Forest fire also infuriated the sheriff.

Maketa said the only thing the two fires have in common is they were both fueled by the wind.

“This report is facts twisted around and fiction filling in the gaps,” he said.

Numerous sources in Fisher’s report are anonymous, prompting Maketa to say that the entire report is — as far as he’s concerned — fabricated, until he knows exactly who said what.

Calls to the Black Forest Fire/Rescue Protection District for comment were not returned Friday.

Fisher, a retired police commander from Greenwood Village, was hired to review the fire after Maketa accused Black Forest Chief Bob Harvey of mishandling the response. Those comments by Maketa came after Harvey told KRDO-Channel 13 in Colorado Springs that evidence indicated the fire was intentionally set.

A short summary of the report, released in February, praised Harvey’s actions during the fire, adding, “No one could have stopped this fire.”

Ryan Parker: 303-954-2409, rparker@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ryanparkerdp