DIMMITT, Texas — An explosion at a dairy farm near Amarillo killed more than 18,000 cattle and critically injured one person on Monday.
Officials said one person is in critical condition after an explosion Monday night at South Fork Dairy in Dimmitt.
The Castro County Sheriff’s Office said they received eight calls around 7:21 p.m, about an explosion and fire at the Southfork Dairy Farm. More calls said that some of the employees were trapped inside the dairy milking building.
When law enforcement arrived at the dairy farm, they determined only a woman was trapped in the dairy building.
She was found and taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
Officials said all of the other dairy employees were accounted for and were safe.
The Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire. However, Sheriff Rivera says it likely started from a machine overheating and igniting an explosion.
“The speculation was probably what they call a honeybadger, which is a vacuum that sucks the manure and water out and possibly that it got overheated and probably the methane and things like that ignited and spread out and exploded and the fire,” said Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera.
Sheriff Rivera says the fire was so large because it likely spread through the insulation of the building. He says the entire dairy may have damage from the smoke and fire.
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