A large dairy herd has been virtually wiped out from an explosion and fire that destroyed two buildings at South Fork Dairy in Castro County, south of Dimmit about an hour outside of Amarillo.
All day Tuesday, the news kept getting worse. Now, it looks like an estimated 18,000 head of dairy cattle died in the fire that burned through the night Monday and was still smoldering Tuesday. Only about a thousand head survived.
Reports say a farm worker was trapped in one of the burning buildings. She was rescued and was flown to a Lubbock hospital about 75 miles away. She is reported to be in critical condition.
Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera says there's still a lot of investigating to do but their preliminary thought is that a piece of equipment over-heated and ignited methane gas which caused the initial explosion, leading to the massive fire.
Rivera says South Fork Dairy is a fairly new operation, it's only been in business for less than a year.
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