SAN ANTONIO – An explosion caused by natural gas left a San Antonio mother severely injured and her son permanently disabled, according to the family’s attorney.
A Bexar County jury found CPS Energy negligent on Monday for a 2021 explosion at an East Side home, ordering the municipality to pay $109 million in damages.
Virginia Rymers and her son Robert Rymers sued the city-owned municipality after an explosion at their home on Walters Street on May 1, 2021.
Michael Lyons, the family’s attorney, told KSAT in an interview that 65% of Robert Rymers’ body is either burned or grafted.
“What that does to a person, it’s a debilitating condition,” Lyons said. “He is in a constant state of pain. His condition is not going to get better. It will actually get worse.”
Robert Rymers will need 32 surgeries over the next ten years to correct constrictions that occur when the skin is grafted, Lyons told KSAT.
“Each time Robert has to undergo a procedure, he will endure more pain and it will experience re-traumatization of all the things that he’s already been through,” Lyons said.
The former home of Virginia and Robert Rymers had its gas system installed in 1960, according to Lyons. After a series of failures led to the meter being replaced in 2008 and 2015, the property owner decided to convert the home to all-electric.
“What this case shows is that you still have to account for your conduct, whether you’re an individual or a big company,” Lyons said. “And that gives me tremendous hope for both our communities as well as our system.”
In a statement to KSAT on Monday, CPS Energy said, “We continue to dispute liability and are evaluating our next steps.”
Lyons said there was a known history of gas leaks at this meter, and CPS “didn’t really seem to have a preventative maintenance program.”
“As a concerned citizen of Bexar County, what you hope is that CPS takes this result, and takes a different position on how its maintenance plans operate. They need to have preventative maintenance,” Lyons said. They need to do more to make sure that their system is free of leaks and people remain safe in their homes.”
