Saskatchewan farming family has close call in combine fire

It was a scary day for one Saskatchewan farming family Tuesday.

The LeBlancs farm near Estevan. While in the midst of harvest, one of their five combines caught fire.

Jason LeBlanc’s 13-year-old daughter, Gracie, was operating the machine at the time.

“It got the old heart pumping, that’s for sure …,” Jason said.

“The cab was engulfed. If she would have sat in there for another 30 seconds, she would have been toast.”

Luckily, the family and surrounding community were all quick to spring into action.

“When we spotted the fire, we told (Gracie) to stop on the radios. We quickly got out with all of the fire extinguishers and things that we had and we started to spray and we told her to get out of the cab immediately,” LeBlanc explained.

“That combine went from a small little fire on the back to completely engulfed in less than a minute.”

Nobody was hurt, and the quick response even minimized damage to the crops. LeBlanc said there wasn’t going to be any financial impact to the crops due to the fire — but the combine is a write-off.

“We have a great neighbourhood here,” LeBlanc said. “The group chat is set up on WhatsApp and it’s only for emergencies. All I did was say, ‘I have a fire on the land location and I need help,’ and it was instant. We had six four-wheel-drive tractors with discs, a couple of road graders and they were putting the fire out in the field … Water trucks just started showing up …

“When something like that happens, you just drop what you’re doing and run.”

Even in the busy startup of harvest season, LeBlanc said none of the nearby farmers ever hesitate to lend a hand.

“What’s cool about farmers is that they come, they put out a fire like that, they make sure that everybody’s OK and they’re right back to work. They maybe lost an hour out of their time or two hours and then everybody’s right back to work like nothing happened. It’s just a good community,” he said.

As for Gracie, she was initially shaken up by the fire, but quickly recovered.

“It was like protocol. When that happened, she did everything she was told,” LeBlanc said. “(There were) a few tears last night, but this morning, we had her in another machine and she has been running since 7:30 this morning.”

Strong winds at the time could have spread the fire if not for the quick response. It’s a lesson that will affect how the LeBlanc family farms in the future.

“It was 70 (kilometres per hour) gusting to 90-kilometre-an-hour winds, and if that happens again, we’re going to stop,” Jason said. “It’s a safety thing now.

“Everybody’s always wanting to go full throttle and get as much work done as you can, but a 70 and a 90-k wind is almost worse than getting a hailstorm. It can do just as much damage, so just quit (for the day).”

As for how the fire started, the combine was found to have a faulty bearing.