More than 18,000 cows were killed on Monday at South Fork Dairy Farm in Dimmitt, Texas, after a catastrophic fire destroyed a building where they were being held.

Authorities received multiple calls reporting employees trapped in a milking facility, and at least one worker was sent to the hospital in critical condition after being rescued by first responders, according to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth.

Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera stated that a fire, ignited by an explosion, spread to a building where cattle were held before being brought to the milking area, as reported by KFDA.

All cows, except for a small percentage, perished in the disaster. The blaze likely spread through the insulation of the building.

“There’s some that survived, there’s some that are probably injured to the point where they’ll have to be destroyed,” Rivera said, referring to the surviving livestock.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality assisted workers in disposing of the cattle carcasses.

The Animal Welfare Institute claimed this incident could be the deadliest cattle fire since the organization began monitoring barn fires a decade ago.

Dimmitt, a town southwest of Amarillo with fewer than 5,000 residents, witnessed smoke from the fire that was visible for miles.

Local resident Renzo Sullivan told KDFA, “It is kind of painful because it’s like that’s kind of what we do here, and that’s how we get our money for the city and all that. So that’s just a major drop for us.”

Other residents expressed shock at seeing the plumes of smoke and voiced concerns about the economic impact on Dimmitt.

This disaster follows several recent reports of industrial and agricultural accidents across the nation including a recent fire at a recycling plant in Richmond, Indiana.

RELATED: Massive Fire at Indiana Recycling Plant Forces Evacuation of Over 2,000 Residents

Two months ago, a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, caused by a malfunctioning axle led to the leakage of volatile chemicals, impacting the air and water supply of the small rust belt community. Local and state authorities evacuated all residents within a mile of the crash and initiated a controlled burn to reduce the risk of explosion. Massive plumes of dark smoke containing vinyl chloride, a carcinogen that can contaminate water supplies, were visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Despite assurances from state and federal public health officials, researchers from Texas A&M University and Carnegie Mellon University found in February that nine chemicals present on the train had higher concentrations than normal in the town’s air and water supplies, potentially posing long-term health risks to residents.