LA PORTE, Inc. — A LaPorte County farmer was harvesting corn when suddenly flames began shooting up from the ground. It took several hours and thousands of gallons of water to extinguish what was described as a muck fire.

“All I know is we were picking corn and the next thing I know I see flames and I call 911 and here you are, the fire department is here,” said Kenneth Michael, owner of the 80-acre burning field.

The fire occurred Nov. 4 at U.S. 6 and 550 East between Kingsford Heights and Walkerton.

Michael said he just started harvesting the field and was still in his combine when he first spotted the flames a few hundred feet away.

At least three fire trucks wound up getting stuck in the soft ground while trying to get as close to the flames as possible. The trucks were pulled out by straps attached to other fire engines and tractors on hard ground to gain traction.

The flames stayed mostly in the muck close to a pond but aided from relatively strong winds spread into a small amount of the still-standing corn raised in more traditional soil.

Bill Field, an agriculture safety expert at Purdue University, said muck is old vegetation and other forms of organic material that can ignite when dry. The organic material also referred to as peat is often left from a swamp drained many years ago.

Field said muck fields are especially prone to catching fire right now because of drought-like conditions throughout much of the state.

A spark from a running machine is one of the potential causes of a muck fire, which can burn for several years if the flames advance several feet below the surface of the ground.

“Once you get a fire, it might burn for a long time,” Field said.

Field said he once worked at a dairy farm in upstate New York where a lot of nutrient rich muck ground was used to raise celery, carrots, potatoes, onions and other crops. “Nobody ever burned trash or anything when it was dry because they were all afraid the ground would literally burn,” he said.

Muck ground is also used for harvesting peat commonly used in landscaping to help plants take root.

Field said there are peat mines in Indiana in areas like Benton County and lot of muck in spots along U.S 421 from Lafayette to Michigan City.

“You go through areas where they raise mint and a lot of that is muck ground. All of that at one time was swamp ground. That’s why you have all of those drainage ditches there,” he said.

Field said peat also used to be mined in blocks for people to burn and stay warm during the winter in countries like Ireland. “That’s how they heated their homes for hundreds of years,” he said.

Field said mucky ground is challenging to farm because it can easily clump if tilled when too wet and stir up clouds of dust if too dry when tilled.

Harvesting machines also require floatation tires to navigate the fields to avoid sinking into the earth. “There’s an art to working the ground,” he said.

Field said muck fires are fairly rare. He said keys to prevention include no open burning and avoid using equipment not in good repair.

Field said heat from an exhaust system that should be replaced can generate enough heat to start a muck fire and friction from loose machinery parts can produce a spark that can ignite the dry earth.

“Most fires around farm machinery are typically related to the exhaust system which is the hottest part of the machine,” he said.