A Contra Costa County civil grand jury found that the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District had fallen behind in its mandatory fire inspections of schools and multifamily residences in 2018 and presented the district eight findings and six recommendations, mostly regarding the number of personnel needed to conduct more than 7,600 mandated annual inspections, incomplete record keeping and an obsolete records management system. ConFire acknowledged the report with a formal response in early August, though the district did not agree with all of the 14 points posited by the grand jury.
ConFire has implemented or agreed to implement grand jury recommendations to evaluate the size of the fire prevention bureau, produce a quarterly report on the status of compliance with state mandated inspections and to replace its records management system to allow code officials to enter inspection data directly into a tablet device in the field, rather than manually when the inspectors arrive back at the office.