Photo courtesy of the Castro County Sheriff’s Office
One person is in a Lubbock hospital after they were injured in a fire from a dairy farm explosion Monday evening, April 10, but officials are saying the amount of cows killed in the fire are possibly in the thousands. Initial reports say around 18,000 dairy cows were killed at the Southfork Dairy Farm in Dimmit, Amarillo station KFDA reports.
The fire from the explosion spread to the the dairy building and into the holding pens where the cows were kept. The Animal Welfare Institute told KFDA that this may be the deadliest barn fire involving cattle since the organization started tracking barn fires in 2013.
One person, a dairy farm worker, was critically injured in the fire after they became trapped inside the dairy building. They were rescued by first responders at the scene. All other employees were accounted for and unharmed despite early reports that multiple employees were trapped.
Video from the fire was posted to social media Monday night showing a massive plume of dark smoke billowing into the sky. Another video shows a wall of smoke alongside a road that is closer to the dairy farm. Other video shows firefighters combating the flames into the night.
The state fire marshal is still investigating the cause of the fire, but Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera believes the fire started by methane being ignited from overheating electrical equipment. A report from PBS News in 2022 said that cows emit 40% of methane gas globally because of their high-fiber diet. The methane is usually emitted via cow burps.