(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) An explosion at a Texas dairy farm killed nearly 20,000 cows and left one person in critical condition on Monday.
Workers at Southfork Dairy Farm in Dimmit, Texas, secured their cows in a holding area, preparing them for milking. An estimated 18,000 of them died when a concentrated explosion went off at Southfork Dairy Farm in Dimmit. According to Fox News Digital, only a few of the cows in the holding area survived.
“Your count probably is close to that. There’s some that survived, there’s some that are probably injured to the point where they’ll have to be destroyed,” Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera said.
Several employees were trapped inside the milking building just after the explosion. The Sheriff’s Department received eight calls from workers and neighbors of the farm.
One victim was airlifted from the scene in critical condition; all other employees were fine.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office.
“The speculation was probably what they call a honey badger, 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,” Rivera said in a statement.
This explosion is the latest in a string of destruction at large-scale farms and food processing plants.
In January, the nation’s 3rd largest egg production plant burned down, killing 100,000 birds.
“We have not heard any response from authorities regarding the causes of hundreds of other plant fires over the last year and unfortunately don’t expect this case to be any different,” the local paper reported regarding the incident.
A flour mills, meat processors and other food manufacturing plants across the nation have all seen catastrophe, leading many to question the source of the attacks.
The FBI warned of cyber-attacks against food manufacturers after the egg processing plant burned down.
“Ransomware actors may be more likely to attack agricultural cooperatives during critical planting and harvest seasons, disrupting operations, causing financial loss, and negatively impacting the food supply chain,” the FBI alert stated.
