An explosion at a dairy farm in the Texas Panhandle that critically injured one person and killed an estimated 18,000 head of cattle was the deadliest barn fire recorded since the Animal Welfare Institute began tracking the fires. Castro County Sheriff Salvador Rivera said the Monday fire and explosion at the Southfork Dairy Farm near Dimmitt was likely caused by overheated equipment and would be investigated by state fire marshals. Animal Welfare Institute spokesperson Marjorie Fishman says the deaths dwarf the previous 548 cattle deaths in a 2019 barn fire in New York. A spokesperson for the state insurance department, which oversees fire marshals, said only that the fire is under investigation.
