A West Side San Antonio couple says a February transformer blast in their front yard turned their home into a fire zone in a matter of minutes, injuring them and forcing them out for good. Johnny and Irene Sanchez allege the explosion started in a CPS Energy transformer just steps from their front door, shot through their vehicles, and then tore into the house itself. Their lawsuit, which seeks more than $1 million in damages, says they still have not been able to return to the property.
The lawsuit
Johnny and Irene Sanchez filed their case on May 4 in Bexar County’s 166th District Court, naming CPS Energy, KBS Electrical Distributors Inc. and JSHP Transformer USA Corporation as defendants and asking for more than $1 million in damages. The couple is represented by Falcon Law Group, PLLC, and the complaint requests a jury trial. These details appear in court documents obtained by KSAT.
Explosion, alleged cause and damage
According to the suit, the explosion erupted outside the Sanchez home on Feb. 8 in the 1000 block of Fillmore Drive. Security-camera footage allegedly shows flames first sparking at CPS Energy transformer unit #2300562 in the front yard. The filing says two vehicles were quickly engulfed, with the fire then moving into the garage, attic and main structure and leaving what the complaint describes as “catastrophic structural damage.”
Manufacturer representatives, the lawsuit states, concluded that the bottom weld of the transformer failed and about 55 gallons of mineral-oil coolant were lost. The plaintiffs also allege that CPS Energy removed and replaced the transformer the same evening, before any independent investigation could be completed. These claims are laid out in the court papers cited by KSAT.
A costly precedent
The Sanchez filing points to a headline-grabbing 2025 Bexar County jury verdict that awarded roughly $109 million in a separate home-explosion case. In that earlier lawsuit, jurors found CPS Energy liable, and the Sanchez complaint argues the utility was already on notice that maintenance issues could lead to devastating harm. That verdict has become a reference point in local debates over utility upkeep and public safety. For background on the prior case, see reporting from MySA.
Why it matters
The Sanchez suit lands in the middle of a troubling run of explosion-related incidents and legal claims in San Antonio, including separate blasts on the Northeast Side that sparked another lawsuit and multiagency investigations. Recent coverage has highlighted growing concerns about how often equipment is inspected, how quickly agencies respond when something goes wrong, and whether nearby residents are kept in the loop about potential risks. For local context, see the San Antonio Report…