That sort of smoke could be from burning tires, which are commonly used to hold down the tarps on silage pits or grain bunkers. Silage can also catch fire if it gets too hot, but it doesn't explode, it just smolders for ages and is really hard to put out. Hay can do similar, or wet grain... again they only smolder though. The 18000 dead cattle thing doesn't make sense for anything that would be on a farm though.
Right - was it the explosion, or the resulting smoke from a fire? If this is "as reported", then it has to be death by smoke inhalation.
If an explosion took out the electric (fans/ventilation) and then a grain storage was nearby, I could see a slow burning fire and pinned livestock.
Odds are, one human was near the explosion, but the other humans were able to walk/run out of the building. But, no chance to release the cows.
Right, that all makes sense too. This just is insane.
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