An explosion at the South Fork Dairy in Dimmitt, Texas on Monday 10th April 2023 killed an estimated 18,000 cows and left one person in critical condition.
Authorities believe that the blast was caused by machinery igniting methane gas in the facility. The Castro County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a fire at approximately 7:21pm that day.
Photos posted by the Sheriff’s Office show a huge plume of black smoke rising from the ground. Emergency personnel who arrived at the scene found one person trapped who had to be rescued and flown to hospital in critical condition.
The exact number of cows killed by fire and smoke remains unknown, but the Sheriff’s Office stated that an estimated 18,000 head of cattle had been lost.
Speaking to local news outlet KFDA, Sheriff Sal Rivera said that most of the cattle had been lost after the blaze spread to an area in which cows were held before being taken to a milking area and then into a holding pen.
“There’s some that survived,” he was quoted as saying. “There’s some that are probably injured to the point where they’ll have to be destroyed.”
The cause of the explosion is thought to have been a machine referred to as a “honey badger”, which is used to vacuum manure and water out of the facility. Investigators believe that the machine may have overheated and caused the methane and other gases to ignite and spread, resulting in the explosion.
According to the Animal Welfare Institute, if confirmed, the death toll of 18,000 cows would be “by far” the deadliest barn fire involving cattle since it began keeping statistics in 2013.
