KINGSBURY, Ind. — A northern Indiana man helplessly watched as his collector-item tractor, purchased new by his father, went up in flames.

Neil Loucks used the 1975 International Harvester with a bush hog to mow every year, but this time he found himself yelling for help, with smoke billowing from his beloved tractor.

Needles from pine trees on his 80-acre spread apparently wound up inside the engine compartment and it overheated, bursting into flames.

“It was just kind of a freak thing,” said Loucks, who first tried putting out flames that had to be doused by members of the Pleasant Township Volunteer Fire Department in LaPorte County.

On Oct. 1 he was mowing weeds between rows of trees on his land near Kingsbury, according to the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Office. There were some dry pine needles in the weeds that apparently got sucked into the compartment housing the tractor’s 50-hp engine.

Loucks said he jumped off as soon as smoke began rolling out and tried putting out the fire but was unable to. He began yelling for help until someone who heard his calls dialed 911. Police said the tractor, worth as much as $10,000, was completely destroyed.

Loucks said he didn’t regularly use the tractor but did put it to work occasionally each year. Despite the obvious sentimental value, he seemed to shrug off what might be a heartbreaking loss for others.

“Those things happen,” said Loucks, who has begun the process of acquiring a new tractor.

Gene Matzat, an educator with the Purdue University extension office in La Porte, said tractors and other farm machinery catching fire doesn’t happen often. But as a precaution, the engine compartments and exhaust systems should be checked on a regular basis for anything flammable such as pine needles, hay and cornstalks.

Farm machinery is more susceptible to catching fire this time of year, when plants such as corn are drying out from getting beyond maturity, and the brittle vegetation makes contact with something hot like an engine block or exhaust manifold.

Matzat said there’s also a lot of dust and other particulates in the air during harvest season that can cause heavy machinery fires. “In doing hay, that stuff does get kicked up or the wind blows it in,” he said.

An easy way to remember to check engines and exhausts for dead vegetation or dust is to do so with every oil change or some other regular act of vehicle maintenance. Not checking can mean the matter building up over a period of time, increasing the fire risk, he explained.

‘’That’s something regular maintenance should take care of,’’ said Matzat, who added damage can also be costly – especially if the fire is to a combine worth $250,000.

Engines can also overheat from dead vegetation plugging up radiators, which blocks the flow of air to help with the cooling process, he added.