A massive explosion at a dairy farm in west Texas state has killed more than 18,000 cows, making it the deadliest blaze for livestock on record in the United States.
According to USA Today, the figure is almost three times the number of cattle that are slaughtered every day across the US.
One person was also critically injured in the explosion at South Fork Dairy near the town of Dimmitt at Castro Country on Monday.
Mayor of Dimmitt, Roger Malone, described the number of cow deaths as “mind-boggling”, adding that it was a “real tragedy.”
Officials believe that a fire broke out in the machinery, which may have ignited methane gas.
Castro County’s top executive, County Judge Mandy Gfeller, said that a piece in the equipment malfunctioned at the farm and may have caused an explosion that led to the fire, reports BBC.
Texas officials are still investigating the real cause of the incident, she said.
It took almost a whole day for fire rescue officials to douse the blaze, which is said to have spread rapidly through the holding pens where thousands of dairy cows were crowded together and waiting to be milked.
One dairy farm worker was rescued and taken to hospital. As of Tuesday, the worker was in a critical but stable condition. There were no other human casualties.
Pictures of the incident shared on social media purportedly showed a large plume of black smoke billowing out of the facility.
Explosion at South Fork Dairy Farm in Dimmitt Texas last night. The fire spread into the dairy cow holding pens, and an unknown amount of dairy cattle were killed by the fire and smoke. The cause of the fire is unknown.
Yet another incident affecting food supply. pic.twitter.com/4syPJicbng
— Janebond (@Janebon34813396) April 11, 2023
Sheriff Sal Rivera told local news outlet KFDA that most of the cattle had been lost after the blaze.
“There’s some that survived… There’s some that are probably injured to the point where they’ll have to be destroyed,” he was quoted as saying.
He said the investigators believed the fire might have started with a machine called “honey badger”, which he described as a “vacuum that sucks the manure and water out.”
“Possibly [it] got overheated and probably the methane and things like that ignited and spread out and exploded,” he added.
According to reports, the 18,000 cows that have died account for 90 per cent of the farm’s total herd, with each valued at around $2,000. Officials believe that it might impact milk production in the state.
Castro County is the second-highest milk producing county in Texas. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the county has 15 dairies producing about 67,000 kg of milk a month.
According to the Texas Association of Dairymen. Texas is the fourth largest producer, with an estimated 625,000 cows producing almost 7.5 billion kilos of milk a year.
