LOGANSPORT, Ind. – Drought conditions in some areas this harvest season have sparked a rash of fires in farm fields, with the largest burning dozens of acres of corn in Indiana and Illinois.

The amount of corn that burned Oct. 5 in western Illinois in Knox County was not disclosed but KWQC-TV reported the fire produced large plumes of smoke large enough to be detected on its weather radar.

According to the Rio Fire Department, the fire was caused by material in a combine igniting due to the dry condition of the crops and over 80-degree temperatures.

One firefighter battling that blaze was taken to a hospital and later released while another firefighter was given medical care at the scene for smoke inhalation, officials said.

A fire on Oct. 1 in north central Indiana near Logansport in Cass County burned 50 acres in a corn field also from a hot combine contacting very dry crops.

“It’s pretty much across the region. We’re all in a drought. It’s all really dry,” said Rocky Buffum, director of the Cass County Emergency Management Agency.

Buffum said a farmer made a few passes in his combine then stopped to dump the corn into a tractor trailer in the field when he smelled smoke.

The organic leftovers in the just-harvested section of the field caught fire and fanned by the fairly strong winds quickly spread into the standing corn.

“It just took off pretty quickly,” he said.

He estimated 75 percent of the 50 acres that burned had corn still waiting to be harvested.

Buffum said it took firefighters on brush trucks about two hours to put out the flames and another one hour to make sure there were no lingering hot spots.

Fortunately, Buffum said there were no collisions involving the brush trucks due to smoke thick enough to greatly restrict visibility.

That same day in Cass County, a few acres of plant material left from freshly harvested soybeans burned after catching fire from open burning that was being done in a backyard adjacent to the field.

Ever since, Buffum said there were a few other close calls in Cass County involving fires quickly put out with minimal damage from “hot machinery on really dry crops.”

Cass and numerous other drought-stricken counties such as LaPorte County in northwest Indiana have imposed open burning bans to try to protect crops until harvest season is over.

Other close calls have occurred elsewhere such as in LaPorte County, where farmer Mark Parkman had plant material in the front of his combine catch fire while harvesting soybeans for a customer near Union Mills on Oct. 5.

Parkman said he smelled a little smoke and stopped then discovered a smoldering fire in the feed accelerator of his machine.

He was able to clear some of the material from his combine but the burning vegetation, once it fell to the ground, caught the stubble from his freshly harvested soybeans on fire.

Parkman said he was able to quickly stomp out the flames and drive his combine to the farm for water to put out the rest of the smoldering material in his machine.

“We were lucky,” he said.

Parkman said the fields were also dry enough to kick up enough dust while harvesting to almost force him to stop from low visibility.

“You could hardly see because the wind from the south was blowing everything in front of you. If we wouldn’t have had auto-steer we probably wouldn’t have been able to keep going,” he said.