diff --git a/src/REAXFF/reaxff_ffield.cpp b/src/REAXFF/reaxff_ffield.cpp
index b941d7d0f0..7dfa2ee1cb 100644
--- a/src/REAXFF/reaxff_ffield.cpp
+++ b/src/REAXFF/reaxff_ffield.cpp
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 
 using LAMMPS_NS::utils::open_potential;
 using LAMMPS_NS::utils::getsyserror;
+using LAMMPS_NS::utils::strmatch;
 using LAMMPS_NS::utils::uppercase;
 using LAMMPS_NS::EOFException;
 using LAMMPS_NS::ValueTokenizer;
@@ -71,7 +72,7 @@ namespace ReaxFF {
                                           filename, lineno, want, values.count()))
 
     if (control->me == 0) {
-      FILE *fp = LAMMPS_NS::utils::open_potential(filename, lmp, nullptr);
+      FILE *fp = open_potential(filename, lmp, nullptr);
       if (!fp)
         error->one(FLERR,"The ReaxFF parameter file {} cannot be opened: {}",
                    filename, getsyserror());
@@ -81,9 +82,11 @@ namespace ReaxFF {
       try {
         int i,j,k,l,m,n,lineno = 0;
 
-        // skip header comment line
+        // check if header comment line is present
 
-        reader.skip_line();
+        auto line = reader.next_line();
+        if (strmatch(line, "^\\s*[0-9]+\\s+!.*general parameters.*"))
+          THROW_ERROR("First line of ReaxFF potential file must be a comment or empty");
         ++lineno;
 
         // set some defaults