By STAN MADDUX

Indiana Correspondent

NACHUSA, Ill. — A father and son were killed when a natural gas pipeline struck by a tiling machine exploded on their family farm in Illinois. Two other people survived, but they could be facing long recoveries.

Rory Miller, 59, and Ryan Miller, 30, died in the Dec. 5 blast at M&R Farms outside Nachusa, an unincorporated community about 5 miles east of Dixon in the northern part of the state. The seriously injured were identified as Michael Koster and Kyler Ackland, both 20, who were last reported in stable condition.

According to the Lee County Sheriff's Office, they were taken to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford by local residents who rushed over to help.

Authorities said farm workers were installing field tile when a tractor pulling tiling plow became stuck. Another tractor being used to try to free the vehicle was losing traction when it hit the natural gas pipeline, causing an explosion and large fireball.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with these four individuals and their families," Lee County Sheriff John Simonton said.

The owner of the pipeline was Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. In a prepared statement, the company said it was unaware of the fieldwork.

"Unfortunately, a required one-call notification was not provided to the company prior to the work being performed," it stated.

Bill Field, an agriculture safety expert at Purdue University, said Illinois, Indiana and other states have 811 service. Dialing the 3-digit number brings a crew from the local utility to locate and mark any pipelines or electrical wiring beneath the ground, so they can be avoided during tiling or any other type of digging.

Field said farmers not only place their safety at risk, but they can also be held liable for any damage to buried utilities, if arrangements are not made in advance to have utilities marked before digging.

“You're supposed to call before you dig. Every tiler knows that. Everyone who professionally installs anything underground needs to be aware of that,” he said.

Despite 811 existing, he said underground utilities still get hit occasionally by people who either don't know about the service, or they're in too much of a hurry to make the call. He said marking the utilities after a call normally occurs within 72 hours.

Field speculated the recent nice weather could have had influence on the call not being made, because of a desire to get the job done before the unseasonably warm weather became more winter-like.

“If you don't get all of your easements marked out, it can be a real disaster,” he said.

M&R Farms is a small crop farm with five employees or fewer and yearly revenues of close to $500,000. According to SaukValley.com, an online newspaper in Dixon, the Millers were also certified public accountants.