Kennedy Sessions,
Houston Chronicle
(TNS)
Apr. 12—A fiery explosion at a dairy farm in North Texas on April 10 has left 18,000 dairy cows dead and one person injured. The fire and explosion at the South Fork Dairy Farm in Dimmitt, Amarillo, may stand to be the deadliest barn fire for cattle in Texas, according to the Animal Welfare Institute.
Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera told KFDA Channel News 10 on Monday that officials are still investigating the root cause of the fire, but acknowledged that the ensuing blaze spread in an area of the barn where the cows roam. Only a small percentage of cattle on the farm survived, Rivera added, and the surviving group of cows has been moved to a separate facility under South Fork's care.
The Castro County Sheriff's Office, law enforcement, fire departments, and EMS teams responded to the fire on Monday night.
"I think they're trying to determine if it's a machinery called a 'honey wagon' that sucks out the manure and water...it might've ignited the possibly, methane gas or something like that," Rivera said.
First responders rescued the lone injured dairy farm worker after they were trapped inside the facility. After being rescued, the worker was airlifted to University Medical in Lubbock and was last reported in critical condition.
"We hope the industry will remain focused on this issue and strongly encourage farms to adopt commonsense fire safety measures. It is hard to imagine anything worse than being burned alive," Public Relations Manager with Animal Welfare Institute Margie Fishman told KFDA.
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