About half an acre of farmland burned after a brush fire broke out Tuesday in Mahoning Township.

Mahoning Valley fire Chief Mark Ebbert said firefighters responded at around 7 p.m. to 191 Stewart Creek Road.

Ebbert said that once firefighters arrived on scene they found heavy brush in a farm field on a hillside that extended into the woods.

“It was just at a rough location to get at because we had to go through multiple fields and through a creek to get to this interior field,” Ebbert said. “Things went smooth as far as containment once we got into the field.”

Ebbert said firefighters had the situation under control within about a half hour.

He said the cause of the brush fire was accidental, as the property owners were riding a UTV in their fields that caught fire.

The UTV caught fire, which sparked the brush fire, which spread to the dry grass.

Ebbert said there were no injuries.

He said firefighters remained on scene for a little over an hour.

Ebbert said also assisting was a representative from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry.

There was an increased risk of rapid fire spread Tuesday afternoon across portions of eastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey.

Minimum relative humidity values were between 20 and 30 percent that combined with west winds of 10-20 mph and gusts of 20 to 30 mph, while high temperatures reached the upper 50s.

Those conditions, along with the continued drying of fine fuels, elevated the potential for the rapid spread of any fires that ignited.

Outdoor burning is strongly discouraged. Be sure to properly extinguish or dispose of any potential ignition sources, including smoking materials such as cigarette butts.