One woman is critically injured and numerous cattle are dead from an explosion at a dairy farm in Castro County, Texas.
The Castro County Sheriff’s Office received multiple calls about a massive explosion at about 7:20 p.m. on the evening of April 10 at the South Fork Dairy Farm, located approximately 11 miles from the rural community of Dimmitt, Texas, according to officials. Dimmitt, which has a population of about 8,600, is situated about 65 miles southwest of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
Multiple employees were inside the building at the time of the explosion, the Castro County Sheriff’s Office said in an email.
Dimmitt Fire Department, along with Hart Volunteer Fire Department, arrived first on the scene and made entry into the building, where they discovered and rescued one employee who was still inside the burning building.
The other employees who were reportedly inside when the explosion occurred were able to get out before the first responders arrived.
All employees were accounted for, and several suffered injuries from the incident. It’s unclear how many workers were inside the building when the explosion happened.
The injured woman, whose name has not been released, was treated at the scene before being transported by air to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas.
It is not immediately known how many heads of cattle died.
Firefighters from Nazareth, Tulia, Muleshoe, and Springlake-Earth also responded to the fire, which broke out in the dairy building before spreading to the dairy cow holding pens.
A spokesperson for Castro County Sheriff’s office told The Epoch Times that the cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
Another Recent Explosion in South Texas
In March, an explosion and large fire occurred at a chemical plant in Pasadena, Texas, local news station KTRK reported.One man was injured in the blast at the Houston-area facility on March 22.
The chemical plant, owned by London-based INEOS Phenol, produces an organic compound called cumene, which is used to make a variety of products, including herbicides, pesticides, cleaning agents, and vehicle parts.
The explosion that occurred at about 12:30 p.m. was reportedly heard and felt across the Houston ship channel. The black smoke was visible in downtown Houston.
“The LPG was a mixture of propylene and propane, a raw material used in the production of cumene. During offloading of the LPG, for reasons that are unclear, the LPG ignited causing an explosion and subsequent fire.”
There were “no known impacts to the community at large,” Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia told reporters during a news conference after the explosion.
The injured man was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition at the time.
The air quality was monitored, and no degradation of air quality was reported.
