El Paso retirement board holds moment of silence after Sun Metro maintenance-site explosion; one employee dies

The City of El Paso Employees Retirement Trust opened its Feb. 19 meeting with a moment of silence after an explosion and fire at a Sun Metro maintenance facility that seriously injured several employees and killed one, the board said.

Meeting host David opened the session by saying, “I— like to start off on a little bit of a somber note,” and reported that an employee, Ruben Ibarra, who had worked at Sun Metro for a few months, had died following last Tuesday—s incident.

The board did not take formal action related to the incident during the meeting. The announcement and moment of silence were part of the meeting—s opening remarks and were not accompanied by additional details about the cause of the explosion, the number of injured employees beyond "several," or ongoing investigations, all of which the board described as not specified during its remarks.

Sun Metro was identified by the board as the employer of the deceased. The board—s comments were limited to expressing condolences and observing a moment of silence for Ibarra; no staff report, motion, or vote on the incident was recorded in the meeting transcript excerpt.

The board did not provide further information about next steps, investigations, or support for affected employees during the portion of the meeting recorded in the transcript.