A compressed-natural-gas Sun Metro bus toppled off a hydraulic lift and exploded inside the transit agency’s far-east El Paso maintenance center on Feb. 11, 2025, turning a routine service job into a deadly two-alarm inferno. The blast ripped through work bays, collapsed sections of the roof and walls, and left several mechanics and staff injured. Two employees, Ruben Ibarra and German Garcia, later died from their injuries as fire crews worked for hours to corral the flames and stabilize the building for investigators.
What investigators concluded
Local reporting and official notices later tied the disaster to a maintenance accident. Investigators say the bus slipped off a hydraulic lift, then struck an adjacent control panel that punctured a compressed-natural-gas cylinder. The breach triggered an uncontrolled gas release that ignited in a rapid deflagration, turning the bay into a fireball.
The Fire Marshal's Office ultimately ruled the event unintentional as the probe wrapped up in mid-May. City officials said multiple people were assessed at the scene and several were hospitalized while crews contained the fire and secured the structure, according to the City of El Paso. Reporting by the El Paso Times echoed those details as more information became public.
Video released after records fight
Surveillance footage from inside the maintenance bay captures the slow-motion lead-up to the blast. The video shows the bus tipping off the lift, workers scrambling to get clear and, seconds later, a sudden fireball as the CNG tank is breached and ignites.
The footage was obtained and published by ABC-7 after a public-records push, then picked up by other outlets, including KLAQ. The full city-released clips appear in the original coverage by KVIA, which shows the sequence from routine work to chaos in a matter of moments.
Fire response and damage
The explosion triggered a massive response from El Paso firefighters. Roughly 48 units and more than 100 firefighters were dispatched to the Sun Metro facility, and crews spent hours knocking down hotspots, checking for gas, and shoring up the unstable structure.
The blast caused severe structural damage, with sections of the roof and walls collapsing under the force of the deflagration and the heat that followed. The city moved into phased debris removal and structural shoring at the site, while Sun Metro rerouted maintenance operations to keep buses in service, according to reporting and industry summaries. CTIF details the emergency timeline and scale of the response, and a Sun Metro news release outlines the city’s debris removal and stabilization plan.
Transit safety and CNG maintenance
The Sun Metro blast has sharpened attention on how transit agencies handle indoor work on compressed-natural-gas buses. Unlike diesel rigs, CNG vehicles come with high-pressure fuel cylinders and demand different ventilation, leak detection, and operational procedures. If a cylinder is breached in an enclosed space without proper safeguards, the results can be catastrophic.
Federal programs often tie funding for new CNG fleets to upgrades in maintenance facilities, and transit research has long stressed that ventilation, gas-monitoring systems, and specialized worker training are key defenses against exactly this kind of incident. A synthesis from the TCRP/Transportation Research Board outlines facility design and safety standards, while recent coverage of FTA grants in Mass Transit highlights how funding is often paired with requirements to modernize garages for alternative-fuel fleets.
Where things stand now
The El Paso Fire Department completed its investigation on May 13, 2025, formally classifying the blast as unintentional. Local reporting noted that no lawsuits had been filed as of mid-2025, even as the city and Sun Metro continued dealing with the physical and financial fallout.
Officials say their focus has shifted to stabilizing what is left of the facility, coordinating insurance and planning repairs. Sun Metro has said it continues to support affected staff and to adjust service while the agency and the city work through recovery and rebuilding, according to local reporting and agency releases. Coverage by KVIA and the Sun Metro news release walks through the cleanup work, structural stabilization, and the long process of bringing the operation center back online.
