Hi,
I worked for a harvester a few years ago cutting sunflowers in Onida, SD. There were a lot of combine fires. The fire department put out 4 in one day. We never had a fire, but we blew our machines off TWICE a day.
The only fire I saw was when a bearing went out on the left side of a JD 9600 under the side cover and started a fire in the stubble. Luckily they got it out a few feet short of the wheat. I was at the bins when that happened.
I worked for a harvester back in '97 and this could be a BS story. He told us he knew of a crew that pulled in to cut 300 acres of certified seed wheat. It was 50-60 bushel wheat, the best the farmer ever had. They had brand new machines (won't say the brand, don't want folks getting off topic and starting a color war.) When they were cutting a place out to park their equipment, they started a fire and the wind took it and got all 300 acres. The only reason it didn't get his house was because the farmer ran up and disked around it. Has anyone else heard this story? It sounds like a rural urban legend to me.
Michael