Lineboro volunteer fire company Second Assistant Chief Dave Dickmyer got to the scene on Grave Run Road just before 10 a.m. Wednesday and said he didn't know what to expect.

``The messages I was getting weren't clear,'' Dickmyer said after the fire was under control.

Because of a dead spot in the coverage of the county's 800 megahertz radio system, Dickmyer said companies had to switch to old low-band radios, ones that some companies, such as Hampstead, no longer have. That meant sometimes firefighters needed the low-band radio in one hand and the 800 megahertz radio in the other.

The county switched to a modernized 800 megahertz system in 1997. Since the firefighters reported problems in the $8 million radio system's coverage in the Lineboro area several years ago, the county has been trying to find a site for a new radio tower in the area.

Dickmyer and Lineboro fire company President John Warner said Wednesday's fire showed how difficult it can be for fire companies to communicate in the Lineboro area without a new tower there.

Fire companies from New Freedom, Glen Rock, Manchester and Hampstead responded to the fire, with a total of about 40 firefighters and 12 fire trucks.

Officials at the scene said the fire started in a woodstove at River Valley Ranch's machine shop. River Valley Ranch, located near Lineboro, is a summer camp for children.

Firefighters pointed out that the situation could have involved more peril if it had occurred in the summer, when the camp serves about 225 kids per week.

Greg Doran, River Valley Ranch director of operations, said that there were only about six staff members at the facility Wednesday.

Calling it an ``unfortunate accident,'' Doran said the camp inspects its buildings monthly. He said the machine shop was built around 1850 and is used as a place to repair lawnmowers and other equipment at the camp.

The fire burned the roof off the shop, but there were no reported injuries.

Although firefighters got the fire under control in about 10 minutes, Warner said the radio situation made it difficult to figure out what other companies were doing at the scene. When his firefighters wanted to tell Hampstead firefighters to bring a hose further up the road near the burning building, for instance, he said they couldn't use the radios.

``You have to make hand signals,'' Warner said. ``We didn't have any confirmation as to what their actions were.''

Warner said he is getting impatient about the radio problem in Lineboro and wants to find a way to force the county to build a tower in the area.

Buddy Redman, director of the county's Office of Public Safety, said the county is still working with the state to find a site for a $750,000 tower near Lineboro. He said the county will build a tower one way or another and that construction could begin by April.

During Wednesday's fire, he said, the county's Emergency Operations Center did not report any communications problems.