3/8/2006: Cows Escape From Sale Barn
At 1900 hours, I went down to the fire hall to attend my EMT-B class. Around 1920 hours, the sheriff's department was paged to a cow/vehicle accident on the highway south of town. They were also notified that there were several head of cattle on the highway. Shortly after that, there was a second accident. The sheriff then requested assistance from the Miller Fire Department (about 1930 hours).
Needless to say, there were more than "several" cows out. Approximately 237 head of cattle had escaped the pens at the sale barn and were running every which way from the south edge of Miller to several miles south of town.
The main concern was trying to get the cows off of the highway so that there weren't any more accidents.
These were Black Angus cattle. It was pitch dark. Try rounding up black cows on a dark night.
The MFD responded with two brush trucks and a suburban, along with multiple privately-owned vehicles. I believe we had around 10 firefighters. Also responding were the sheriff and deputy, four police officers, the emergency manager, and lots of volunteers.
By the time everyone got organized, the cows had divided up into several large groups and scattered to the four winds. All we had to do was locate them, and drive them into some type of pen or corral. Several holding locations were used including the sale barn, the Miller Thriller Bull Riding corral, a rancher's corral, and for a while, the baseball field.
Eventually, all of the cattle were rounded up. We headed back to the fire hall and were back in service by about 2300 hours.
Moo.
UPDATE: Added this picture.
Here are the culprits back at the sale barn the morning after the escape. They should be wearing orange jump suits (hehehe).
UPDATE2: All pictures courtesy of Hand County Emergency Management.
