(La Porte County, IN) - Fire destroyed a large piece of farm machinery in La Porte County while it was being driven home from a shop where it underwent repairs.
La Porte County Police said that a combine was headed northbound on U.S 421 when its owner and driver, Matt Goetz, noticed smoke coming from the back end. He then pulled into a field near County Road 1000 South outside Wanatah, before spotting flames, which quickly engulfed the right side of the machinery. He said the right side was where the fire was burning, under the full 250 to 300-gallon fuel tank. The fire spread rapidly once a hole had been burned through the plastic tank, allowing all of the leaking fuel to be consumed by the flames.
“I couldn’t get it out before it got into the fuel tank,” he said.
A large plume of black smoke filtered into the air until the flames were extinguished by firefighters. Goetz said four of the six tires on the combine made gunshot sounds from the release of air at high pressure when melted by the heat.
Goetz told investigators he just had $17,000 in repairs done to the combine at a dealership in LaCrosse and was heading home after picking it up from the shop at about 4 p.m. on June 12th.
“I thought it would be an easy ending to the day, then this happened,” he said.
The Goetz family farm raises corn, and soybeans along with seed wheat. Goetz said he has another combine to use, if necessary, as a backup for gathering his 50 acres of wheat that should be ready to harvest in a few weeks. The dealership where it was repaired has also offered him the use of one of their combines, if necessary. The destroyed combine, a 2009 International Harvester, was reportedly insured to help cover the loss.
“We’re going to be talking to the dealership soon and see what we can come up with for a replacement. We should be able to find something reasonable,” he said.
Goetz said he has no idea what caused the fire, which he’s glad didn’t happen during the fall when a vast majority of his harvesting occurs.
“At least we weren’t in the middle of cutting soybeans or harvesting corn and have the combine go down. I guess it’s the right time of the year for it to happen,” he said.
