The fire district now has enough ongoing funding to keep open three fully staffed fire stations that provide service to a district of 249 square miles. The district has three other stations sitting idle; a best-case coverage scenario would have a total of nine fully staffed stations. (Photo courtesy of the ECCFPD)

Brian Helmick knows the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District has had a lot of explaining to do to convince its residents that paying more for fire protection is necessary, and that its money problems are real.

And Helmick and other district officials have been out there for months, talking about how their district is funded, and how that funding is lacking in an area that, over the past 25 years, has gone from almost entirely rural to increasingly urban.

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