When Bobby Ray Chesney's Sykesville fire crew responded to a recent chimney blaze, the veteran chief surveyed the surroundings, as he always does.

He noticed CSX rail tracks running adjacent to the site, so he called the emergency dispatch office in Westminster and asked that someone check whether any trains would be rumbling through. He received no call back, but thought little of it - until he heard the blaring of a whistle.

Chesney laughed the other day when recalling the incident, but only because the train didn't come too close to his crew or any onlookers. The dispatcher's seemingly minor oversight could have resulted in a calamity and then, he said, no one would have laughed.

"You're playing with people's lives here," Chesney said.

Such mistakes have become all too common in the county's dispatch office, say Chesney and other chiefs and volunteer firefighters around Carroll County. Though none of the errors has resulted in injuries or serious property damage, the firefighters worry that a fatal mistake might be inevitable.

The dispatch errors were among the problems the chiefs and firefighters described when they issued recent votes of no confidence in Howard S. "Buddy" Redman, the county's public safety director and the supervisor of the dispatch center in Westminster. The firefighters complain that the dispatchers are underpaid and inadequately trained.

County officials defended the dispatchers, saying they receive months of training before starting work and that they recently received a raise.

"We have a well-trained staff," Redman said. "We certainly have no indication from the complaints we've received that the same mistakes are being made over and over."

But repeated errors are exactly what firefighters are concerned about, said Jeffrey Alexander, president of the fire chiefs' association.

Alexander worked part time in the dispatch office for 19 years, so he has seen the issue from both sides. He resigned from his dispatch job last fall because he felt the office was no longer run properly, he said.

Prone to error

Alexander, who also serves as fire captain for the Westminster volunteer department, described how he and other firefighters cringe when they hear certain voices crackling over the dispatch radio. Though many county dispatchers do an excellent job, he said, some seem hopelessly error-prone. Redman should see that those workers are trained more aggressively or fired, Alexander said.

Certain dispatchers repeatedly give wrong addresses or cross streets, send the wrong equipment to emergency scenes and ignore calls for backup, Alexander and other chiefs said.

Alexander said that a few months ago, firefighters responded to a burning truck at a barn only to realize other buildings were exposed to the flames. They called the dispatch office and asked for backup crews to protect the exposed buildings but received no immediate response. They quelled the blaze before it spread, Alexander said, but the situation could easily have gotten out of hand.

Redman never responded to a formal complaint about the incident, he added.

"All we want to hear really is that they got the complaint, either found a problem or didn't, and dealt with it," Alexander said. "We're not demanding specific disciplinary actions, but we have a right to hear some follow-up on our complaints."

Redman said the county does reply in writing to specific complaints from fire chiefs. He said he didn't know of any instance when such a response wasn't sent.

The problems with dispatchers can be traced to money, firefighters say. Because the county doesn't pay competitive wages, they say, it can't keep experienced dispatchers.

"I don't think the problems are directly reflective of the people in the consoles," said Chesney, who, like Alexander, worked in the dispatch office. "I think they're reflective of leadership that's not getting them the training they need. I think some of these people are being thrown to the wolves for the sake of filling a position."

County officials dispute some of these claims. The county doesn't pay dispatchers as much as Frederick, Howard or Montgomery counties - $11.58 an hour compared with at least $14 an hour in the other counties - but the same could be said for virtually any governmental position, said Carole Hammen, county director of human resources.

Hammen said that dispatch offices everywhere see regular turnover but added that Carroll's office hasn't seen much in the past year and has no full-time openings. The county gave dispatchers a 6 percent raise in September.

"I feel we've done our best to try to keep their salaries up," Hammen said.

Emergency officials have also defended the training of dispatchers.

They train six to eight months in classroom and simulated emergency settings, said Jack Brown, supervisor of the dispatch center. All are state and nationally certified and take a 40-hour basic telecommunications class, a 24-hour emergency medical dispatch course and a 24-hour police dispatch course.

'Firemen are doers'

Alexander and other representatives met with county officials Wednesday for a three-hour discussion of the dispatch office and of their no-confidence votes given to Redman, who was on vacation last week.

They also say Redman has been slow to provide a new radio tower for emergency communications in Lineboro, and they blame him for delays in an updated mapping system for emergency workers countywide. Fire chiefs say they see Redman, who has worked for the county 19 years, as an obstacle rather than a help.

"Firemen are doers, so when we see a wall, we go around it, over it or through it," Alexander said. "That's how we look at the office of public safety."

Redman has maintained that he has always done the best he can to get firefighters the financial support they need, and that he has always been willing to listen to their concerns. He said he is waiting to discuss with the commissioners the votes of no confidence.

Pat Hill, the executive assistant to the commissioners, who helped run the meeting, said there are clear problems but also expressed confidence in Redman.

"There's been a communication problem on both sides for a couple of years, and we need to clear that up, then work with both groups," he said. "You have to do the best you can to keep the firefighters informed, and I think Buddy's doing that."

The firefighters say they will also express their concerns to the next board of commissioners, which will take office the first week of next month. The commissioners-elect have declined comment, other than to say they're interested in talking with the firefighters about their complaints.

Alexander said he and fellow firefighters aren't sure what response to expect from the county. But they said they won't be happy if Redman stays in his job.

"There's no follow-through in that office," Alexander said. "It's finally gotten to the point where we can no longer sit for what's being done."