A fight over a fax machine toner cartridge in a Montgomery County firehouse has started a firestorm.

When the Glen Echo Fire Department’s fax machine ran out of toner, volunteer Chief Herbert Leusch asked the county-paid station commander to replace it, but he was denied. The county maintains only the fax machines it owns, he was told, but the station’s fax machine was paid for by Glen Echo’s volunteer board of directors. Instead, the county paid for a new fax machine.