Tonight, the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District will vote on a 3-station model leaving 9-firefighters to protect 100,000 residents and cover 249 square miles
On April 27, the ECCFPD learned the Benefit Assessment was rejected by the public after 53.04% opposed the idea of paying around $100 to prevent two stations from closing. The District has said two stations would close if the assessment failed, but they never confirmed which two would close.
Currently, the District has 5 stations where it will select 3 to keep open:
- Station 52 – 201 John Muir Parkway, Brentwood
- Station 54 – 739 First Street, Brentwood – Closed Sept. 1, 2014
- Station 59 – 1685 Bixler Road, Discovery Bay
- Station 93 – 530 O’ Hara Ave, Oakley
- Station 94 – 15-A Street, Knightsen
It’s a given that Station 52 and Station 93 are “safe” and will remain open.
The debate tonight will focus around what provides the District with the “best” overall coverage with it’s third station. Will it be Station 54 or Station 59.
Fire Chief Hugh Henderson has always stated his approach is an “outside in” model with Stations 52, 59 and 93—this was the model used when the parcel tax failed in 2012.
This approached meant Engines 52 and 93 were running a majority of the calls because those two engines were closest to the incidents. Meanwhile, Discovery Bay ran minimal calls because when they did respond, they would have to commute back to Discovery Bay before heading back out to other calls.
Recently, there has been a push to place the three stations as close together as possible where a majority of the service calls occur. A internal report reportedly was conducted last year which highlighted where all the calls came from and the engines responding.
According to a source, this plan has facts and data to backup why this model would best serve the District and goes against the Chiefs recommendation. However, the same source also said that because the data says one thing, it doesn’t mean the chiefs way of thinking is wrong because no one wants to close any station.
Note – a records request was put in Friday for a copy of the report. As of 12:00 pm Monday, the report has not yet been provided.
Under this plan, it follows a military style model where when resources get thin, resources are lumped together and work from the inside out. Under this model, Brentwood would keep its two stations and Oakley would remain open leaving the outside of the district uncovered.
In this model, the District would be forced to concede and accept failure for the outer areas of the District because the loses are increased because the District is spread so thin they do not have quick response times.
The District tonight has a very difficult decision to make because one community is not going to be happy.
Do you leave Brentwood with one station covering 56,000 people? Or do you leave a community with 16,000 people completely uncovered? Meanwhile, Bethel Island, Byron, Knightsen, and Morgan Territory continue to get the step-child treatment.
Neither option is enticing because three stations covering this district is next to impossible. Three stations ensure a lot of people will get hurt and suffer great loses.
To make matters worse, the District will also discuss the possibility of reducing the calls for service and the idea of not responding to certain types of emergency calls.
If you go:
6:30 P.M.
8 comments
This photo is ironic, a firefighter sitting there watching stuff burn. This will be the normal in East County thanks to stupid voters.
A hundred dollars would not and will not fix this waste of a fire district leaders. The sky fell already. Get over it. Time for Con Fire to mop this mess up.
@get over it,
You are correct that 100.00 is never going to fix this or the district board (they are not leaders).
You are incorrect that someone else (con fire) is going to fix it.
It will take leaders to fix it, but not from the current fire board.
I’m surprised ECT has not posted a follow up of when the stations will be reduced to three. Are they going to stop partial funding of the Morgan Territory CDF Station for a true only three station model ? It will be awful misleading to the public if the district has the funding for more than just three stations as their public statement and sales pitch said.
Anon, you think maybe CDF should mop up instead of Con Fire ? I’d go Con Fire. At least the pay will become equal.
It’s coming, it was a 3 1/2 hour meeting. Trying to include as much as possible. Have been going through the audio most of the day between incidents and other items.
@get over it,
Neither agency (con fire or Cal fire) will mop up. It’s not in the cards.
It must be nice to sit behind your computer and be so ignorant. You can’t possibly believe yourself.
“I’d go Con Fire”. What does that even mean? You think you get to vote on that? Think again.
Equal pay? Yeah right.
Anon,
What real choices are there? No money, can’t go volunteer, union is a fixed cost, prop 13 will not change, Cities and Supervisors will not make conditions of development a fire benefit, What is your solution based on the fact that every corner is blocked except fold the district. Do you have something better that is realistic? Probably not I bet. You keep up the put downs, it shows who is ignorant.
@get over it,
There are not a lot of choices, which is why we are where we are today. There isn’t much money anywhere, volunteers is an idea that is past its prime, the firefighters work for peanuts, Prop 13 is complex in its design and Cities and Supervisors don’t have a say-because as it has been already explained, this district is independent and as such operates independently (its pretty simple, not sure why you don’t get the concept).
Not sure there is any other solution than a parcel tax and long term solution such as reapportionment of our local property taxes. Pressure needs to be put on the auditor-controllers (county and state) and our state legislators to look at better alignment of the 1 percent property tax allocations. How is that for starters? Guess you lose the bet.
You put down yourself with ridiculous comments . You own that. Get over it.
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