At Least 18,000 Diary Cows Killed in Texas Panhandle Explosion

[SoonerP226]

If @Okie4570 ’s size estimate is accurate, it’s not difficult to imagine 18,000 head of dairy cattle in that building or its vicinity. It looks like that lot is about a half section; on any given Saturday in the fall, there are close to 100,000 people in about half that area on OU’s campus, so if you figure that four or five people occupy the same space as one dairy cow, it’s not hard to imagine them having 18,000 cows in or near that building.

 

[Cowcatcher]

If @Okie4570 ’s size estimate is accurate, it’s not difficult to imagine 18,000 head of dairy cattle in that building or its vicinity. It looks like that lot is about a half section; on any given Saturday in the fall, there are close to 100,000 people in about half that area on OU’s campus, so if you figure that four or five people occupy the same space as one dairy cow, it’s not hard to imagine them having 18,000 cows in or near that building.

By what I measure, I believe @Okie4570 is very close. I came up with the building measurements of .455 mile by .155 mile or 800’x2400’. Then there are several feed lots right next to the building that cover approximately the same amount of area the building does.

 

[Chuckie]

Latest report is a methane gas explosion caused by the failure of an exhaust fan motor that allowed the gas to build up in the massive ductwork that removes the gas.
Motor bearings or windings more than likely got hot reaching the ignition temperature of the methane resulting in a very violent explosion.
It’s a common occurrence in any dust/gas collection/exhaust system.
Grain elevators, sugar processing facilities, dust collection systems and so on.
The fix is to have a redundant system with overcurrent/undercurrent alarms built in that will detect a failure and activate the redundancy which would have prevented the explosion and alerted the facility there was a problem and it’s time to evacuate.
Back when I worked at Smith Tool as a control systems tech, we lost the ductwork that was exhausting a methanol fired continuous heat treating furnace.
Belt broke on the exhaust fan motor which caused a gas build up until it blew up. No one hurt.
I installed a high/low current trip relay wired to the control system emergency stop switch in the PLC which worked perfectly after that as designed.

So your telling me that the local fire marshal, the Dept of AG, OSHA, and half-a-dozen other people or agencies ALL failed to ensure that monitoring equipment was installed and working properly to alert to the presence of an overabundance of methane?
That no one was responsible for equipment maintenance (overheated bearing{?})?
That, for some reason, all of this was kept under wraps from going National news for several days (evidence clean-up maybe)?

Seems to me to be a lot of LARGE . . . ah, 'incidents' happening lately; certainly more than typical, all seemingly 'designed' to increase the cost of food for the working poor in our country and to increase or cripple major transportation links (think derailments, rise in diesel cost for trucking, and container-ship ports backlogs).

 

[cowadle]

now m. ind you i don't know anything. i have been a dairyman in years past though. the dairy industry has morphed into an unreal thing. i would best guess that esg and climate regs were to blame for a methane build up to the point where the mixture was supportive of explosion. i had no idea that these barns were that tight at all and if they are it is by design for sure. looks to me like the cows are housed 24-7 and never see the sun. now go get a milkshake and enjoy the climate change debacle.

 

[cowadle]

probably if a methane mixture was rich enough to explode? the cows were already dead from asphyxiation?

 

[Cowcatcher]

now m. ind you i don't know anything. i have been a dairyman in years past though. the dairy industry has morphed into an unreal thing. i would best guess that esg and climate regs were to blame for a methane build up to the point where the mixture was supportive of explosion. i had no idea that these barns were that tight at all and if they are it is by design for sure. looks to me like the cows are housed 24-7 and never see the sun. now go get a milkshake and enjoy the climate change debacle.

There may be a rotation of in and out. I’m not sure. Here’s some pictures of the feedlots right outside the main barn. Cattle can be seen as the dots scattered. I didn’t count them.

 

[cowadle]

could be idk. but i would gamble the outside feedlots are for the calves and replacement heifers.

 

[Decoligny]

probably if a methane mixture was rich enough to explode? the cows were already dead from asphyxiation?

The amount of methane to cause an explosion is about 10%.
It is lighter than air, so concentrations would be higher above the areas where the cows breathe. It is unlikely that they asphyxiated.

 

[SoonerP226]

could be idk. but i would gamble the outside feedlots are for the calves and replacement heifers.

It’s probable that the 18,000 figure includes cows and calves in the outdoor lots. It probably also includes cattle that had to be euthanized due to wounds sustained from the explosion.

Of course, this all assumes that the 18,000 figure is accurate, and not a typo or somebody’s SWAG...

 

[dennishoddy]

So your telling me that the local fire marshal, the Dept of AG, OSHA, and half-a-dozen other people or agencies ALL failed to ensure that monitoring equipment was installed and working properly to alert to the presence of an overabundance of methane?
That no one was responsible for equipment maintenance (overheated bearing{?})?
That, for some reason, all of this was kept under wraps from going National news for several days (evidence clean-up maybe)?

Seems to me to be a lot of LARGE . . . ah, 'incidents' happening lately; certainly more than typical, all seemingly 'designed' to increase the cost of food for the working poor in our country and to increase or cripple major transportation links (think derailments, rise in diesel cost for trucking, and container-ship ports backlogs).

I’ve survived a half dozen OSHA inspections over the years as well as multitudes of fire marshal walk throughs.
The only thing they looked at is hand tools, cleanliness and machine guarding.
Not a single one of them had a clue what they were looking at if they ever opened up a disconnect or electrical panel which none of them ever did.
They were totally clueless when looking at PLC’s and CNC control systems, plus, I’m betting the family farm that they have no clue how air handling and waste gas systems operate, much less the safeties involved in preventing accidents.
In most industrial environments, it’s the maintenance crews that spot the deficiencies and bring them up to safety standards. That is of course if management will spend the money.
It’s always cheaper to prevent a disaster than to mop up after one and greet the families that died or were injured, but some bean counters don’t understand that concept.
Fought those battles my entire career.