Texas Panhandle explosion kills 18,000 dairy cows

A fiery explosion in the Texas Panhandle killed more than 18,000 cattle and critically injured one worker in what is being described as the deadliest barn fire for cattle on record.

Fire tore through the holding pens of Southfork Dairy Farm in Dimmitt on Monday night, as the cattle were waiting to be milked, authorities told local news outlets.

A dairy farm worker rescued from the building was taken to a hospital and was in critical but stable condition.

Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire, but Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera told KCBD-TV that overheating electrical equipment used to suck waste from the holding pens may have ignited methane.

Photos and videos of the fire posted to social media show a massive plume of thick black smoke swelling from the fire.

"It's mind-boggling," Dimmitt Mayor Roger Malone told USA Today. "I don't think it's ever happened before around here. It's a real tragedy."

It was the biggest single-incident death of cattle in the U.S. since the Animal Welfare Institute, an animal advocacy group, began tracking barn and farm fires in 2013.

Texas ranks fourth nationally in milk production and is home to an estimated 625,000 cows producing almost 16.5 billion pounds of milk a year, according to the Texas Association of Dairymen. Castro County is the second-highest-producing county in Texas, with 15 dairies producing roughly 11% of the state's milk.