Over 18,000 dairy cows have been killed in a fire at the Southfork Dairy Farm, Dimmitt, Castro County, Texas.

The fire, which commenced on Monday night, also injured a female farm worker who is in critical condition in a nearby hospital.

A small number of cows escaped the flames and have been transported to another location.

Causes

Investigating the blaze, Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera has suggested that it could have been a slurry tanker overheating that led to the catastrophe.

“It’s like a vacuum that sucks manure and water out and it’s possible that it got overheated and - probably - the methane and things like that may have ignited and spread out with the explosion and the fire,” he said.

A small number of cows escaped the flames and have been moved to a new location. \ Andrea Daniel

Rivera said all other workers at the farm have been accounted for and that the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation.

According to the Animal Welfare Institute, the blaze is the deadliest fire regarding cattle deaths since its records began in 2013.