On Monday evening, a fire broke out at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas. The fire spread quickly through the holding pens, where thousands of dairy cows crowded together waiting to be milked, trapped in deadly confines. After subduing the fire, officials were stunned at the scale of livestock death left behind; 18,000 head of cattle perished in the fire - which could be the largest single-incident death of cattle ever recorded in the US. A dairy farm worker rescued from inside the structure was taken to an area hospital and was in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday. There were no other human casualties. A malfunction in a piece of equipment at the South Fork Dairy farm may have caused an explosion that led to the fire, said County Judge Mandy Gfeller, the county's top executive. Texas fire officials are still investigating the exact cause. The disaster could cost millions of dollars, with Texas producing nearly 12 billion pounds of milk in 2022 and employing thousands of people in the dairy industry.