Internal reports that the Orange County Fire Authority bungled its initial response to the Canyon Fire 2 are prompting Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson to ask colleagues for an independent investigation of the fire that burned 9,200 acres and destroyed or damaged nearly 60 homes around Anaheim Hills.

“There’s a lot of stuff out there and some of it is not adding up,” Nelson said Sunday, Oct. 22. “We need to find out what’s going on over there.

“We have a right to answers,” he added. “And, right now, I don’t know who to believe.”

Among the questions Nelson wants investigated:

• Did the Orange County Fire Authority respond correctly when it first was told of a possible fire in the canyon on the morning of Oct. 9?

Documents obtained by Southern California News Group show that the Fire Authority’s initial response was to send a single fire engine, without lights and sirens, a response known as a “smoke check.” That response may have violated the Fire Authority’s own guidelines which because of the conditions that day, according to documents, required a “medium danger” deployment, including six engines, a hand crew, two air tankers and two OCFA helicopters.

• Why do public accounts about the time of the blaze differ from the Fire Authority’s documents?

Anaheim public officials and the Fire Authority have said the fire was first reported at 9:45 a.m. Documents obtained by the Southern California News Group show the first call came 17 minutes earlier, at 9:28 a.m., from a driver heading west on the 91 freeway.

Documents also show that at 9:43 a.m., the Fire Authority increased its response to what was by then known to be a full-blown vegetation fire. The first OCFA helicopter – crucial in any attempt to keep small fires from turning into big ones – didn’t lift off until 9:52 a.m., nearly half an hour after the blaze was first reported. It’s unclear when the first helicopter arrived to drop water on the flames.

Fire authority officials did not return calls Sunday. In an earlier interview, Capt. Marc Stone said he would look into the timeline and the agency’s response to the fire.

Nelson also said he is frustrated by the ongoing feud between the Fire Authority and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Even as the fire burned, the two agencies resumed their long-running turf war over whether sheriff’s helicopters should do jobs traditionally reserved for fire helicopters.

Sheriff’s officials said that on the day of the Canyon 2 fire they could have sent three water-dumping helicopters to the blaze in the early minutes, but were not asked to do so by the Fire Authority.

Officials from the Fire Authority said they sought help from the sheriff’s department later in the day, seeking a small helicopter to play an “eye in the sky” role as 17 other helicopters were dropping water on the flames, but sheriff’s officials said they couldn’t comply.

Nelson said he wants the feuding to end because it affects county safety.

“I don’t care who is holding the hose,” Nelson said. “Shoot at the flames.”

Documents do show some elements of the response weren’t fast enough to match the fast-moving blaze.

At 9:52 a.m., the first OCFA helicopter lifted off from Fullerton Airport. But a second helicopter – which a Fire Authority memo dated Oct. 8 said was required because of “red flag warnings” in effect that week – did not leave and had to be dispatched again five minutes later.

The fixed-wing planes that would have been part of a “medium level” response were not en route until 10:19 a.m., from Hemet, 51 minutes after the fire was reported.

At 10:42 a.m., the blaze jumped the 241 toll road, and began its march toward Canyon Heights Drive in Anaheim Hills. It is believed the first homes were engulfed by noon.

At its peak, more than 1,600 firefighters from several agencies were engaged in the Canyon 2 fire. At least four firefighters were injured. The fire was declared fully contained on Oct. 17.

Nelson plans to formally ask other supervisors to join him in seeking an independent investigation of the Canyon 2 fire as part of their scheduled meeting on Oct. 31