There is alot of talk about the flames that blasted through the freestalls. That would seem to suggest some type of gas explosion. 20,000 cows require a big team of herdsmen, but only one person injured? And big impact on that milk market.
That bit about no one, or few, injured/killed while tending 20K cows has me thinking “insurance fire.” IT’S a DAIRY. There’s no way you can be milking 80,000 tits without involving at least a couple/three/maybe four really fast cowboys/dairy maids?
And let’s say it was a slow starting fire and the workers had time to run? Most of the cows could not have died instantly and would require putting down. No doubt a Texas Dairy would have a few rifles handy but 20,000 rounds of ammo? Even I would have trouble rounding up that much on short notice. Just weeeeiiird