The cause of a massive barn fire on a dairy in Texas was determined to be an engine fire in a vacuum truck being used to clean manure from the barn’s alleyways. On April 10, a fire and explosion at Southfork Dairy in the Texas Panhandle injured one person and killed approximately 18,000 head of dairy cattle. One employee attempted to put out the fire initially using fire extinguishers, but the fire spread rapidly in the cross-ventilated barn. The incident was determined to be accidental according to state investigators.

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