That site is a half section. Or about 320 acres.
Just to add an African twist, the initial report was that a Honey Badger was the cause of the fire
The official who said that mis-spoke. It appears to have been a Honey-Vac. Nothing I've seen is confirmed but if I'm to speculate.... That would be a manure vacuum truck used to clean alleys while cows are in the holding pen and parlor being milked. Hard to say what happened without more info but my best guess is a bearing went out or some other issue that started that unit on fire. It is likely diesel powered, either self propelled or pulled by a tractor. (We have some of both). When i zoomed in on Google, it appears there is a manure vacuum truck driving outside the barn
That huge ceiling would likely be insulated (to keep it cooler in summer and from sweating and dripping in winter) and the building itself would likely be all steel framed with steel roof. It is I suppose possible some some methane gas could have been present but I don't honestly see how. Unless the power was off but even then, they would have backup generators to run the fans.
To try to explain the cross vent barn, it likely has that entire 2400 foot long wall lined solid with large exhaust fans. Think 5 or 6 foot diameter or bigger but a full wall of them. A goal would be to maintain a 6 mile per hour air speed coming through that barn. That is why I really doubt there would be much methane built up. But anything is possible.
More likely the insulation caught fire and that ventilation system sucked it through the whole barn within seconds. Making it seem like an explosion.
The cows are obviously bedded on sand and fed with a TMR so no flammable bedding and feed would likely be about 50% water. So it almost has to be insulation.
