DIMMITT, Texas (AP) — An explosion at a dairy farm within the Texas Panhandle that critically injured one particular person and killed an estimated 18,000 head of cattle is the deadliest barn fireplace recorded because the Animal Welfare Institute started monitoring the fires.
Castro County Sheriff Salvador Rivera has stated the Monday fireplace and explosion at Southfork Dairy Farm close to Dimmitt was possible brought on by overheated tools and could be investigated by state fireplace marshals.
Castro County Emergency Administration by way of AP
“This is able to be probably the most lethal fireplace involving cattle up to now decade, since we began monitoring that in 2013,” institute spokesperson Marjorie Fishman stated Thursday.
The institute additionally tracks barn fires that kill different livestock, together with poultry, pigs, goats and sheep.
“The deadliest barn fireplace total since we started monitoring in 2013 … was a hearth … at Hello-Grade Egg Producers North, Manchester, Indiana, which killed 1 million chickens,” in accordance with Fishman.
A 2022 report by the institute famous “a number of cases wherein 100,000 to 400,000 chickens have been killed in a single fireplace.”
A cellphone name to South Fork Dairy rang unanswered on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the state insurance coverage division, which oversees the fireplace marshals’ workplace, stated solely that the fireplace is underneath investigation and referred inquiries to Rivera, who didn’t instantly return cellphone requires remark Thursday.
Insurance coverage division spokesperson Gardner Selby declined touch upon the injured particular person’s situation.
Dimmitt is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Amarillo and 50 miles east of the New Mexico border.