VIDEO: Fire officials in Dauphin County are questioning how safe their paging systems are.
Deputy Fire Chief of Hummelstown Fire Department, Leland Blough, says the pagers they use, requires them to look down and read fire calls, sometimes while driving, making them unsafe.
The pagers were a 35 million dollar investment, purchased in 2010 by Dauphin County.
"You’re not allowed to text and drive which is great, but that’s putting us at risk, we gotta pick up our pagers and look at them, to me that was a step backwards," said Blough.
Blough says the paging system his department uses, doesn’t have a voice command the way the old one’s did.
He says there isn’t always an option to pull over when a fire comes through.
“When we get a call and go out, we want to come back alive," said Blough.
According to Blough, he has voiced his concerns to the county in the past with no luck.