Calling their firefighting strategy “inappropriate”, a Detroit-based fire investigator on Friday, Nov. 7, blasted Rock Falls fire officials for how they handled a Dec. 3, 2021, fire that led to the death of a Sterling fire lieutenant.

Fire investigator Wendy Sanders’ testimony came toward the end of the first week of a civil trial in which a jury will decide whether Rock Falls fire officials’ actions caused Sterling Fire Lt. Garrett Ramos’ line-of-duty death.

Ramos, 38, died after he fell through a burning floor and into a basement that fire officials overseeing the blaze didn’t know existed until it was too late.

His wife, Brittney C. Ramos, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in December 2022 against the city of Rock Falls; then-Rock Falls Fire Chief Cris Bouwens and Fire Chief Ken Wolf, who was the accountability officer at the scene and is now Rock Falls’ fire chief. Brittney Ramos is claiming those two fire officials showed willful and wanton disregard that caused her husband’s death.

Sanders on Friday led the jury through a minute-by-minute timeline detailing fire officials’ decisions, information gathering and the resulting firefighting strategy that she said contributed to Ramos’ death at 10031 Ridge Road in Rock Falls.

Sanders was on the witness stand throughout the day – the fourth day of testimony in the trial – using an animated model that depicted the burning structure and its condition as critical decisions were being made by Bouwens and other command staff, as well as actions taken by firefighters in the throes of fighting the blaze.

Sanders’ timeline started from when the 911 call was made at 11:04 p.m. by the home’s basement resident – who reported the attached garage was burning and there were flames shooting through the roof – up until Ramos’s body was recovered from the home’s basement at 1:13 a.m. Dec. 4.

What she described was a string of failures that began when Bouwens drove two miles directly from his home to the scene. He was the first firefighter to arrive and, as such, was the incident commander, a role that would make him the person responsible for the overall firefighting strategy.

Sanders said that role includes carrying out National Fire Protection Association standards that include asking if the home has a basement and, if it does, whether it is a finished or unfinished basement.

That is important, according to testimony, because a home with a basement means fire could be burning from below the first floor and compromise that floor’s stability at the same time firefighters are walking on it.

Sanders said Bouwens did not ask that question, nor did he talk to the 911 caller, who was at the scene throughout the fire. Sanders said Bouwens used the time – about 5 minutes prior to the first fire engine arriving – to walk around the house.

“He has nothing else to do except to walk around the house and talk to residents,” she said of that 5 minutes.

Sanders believes the fire would not have turned fatal had Bouwens interviewed the resident, learned about the basement and passed that information onto command staff that included Sterling Fire Chief Mike Dettman, who would serve as the operations officer at the front of the home while directing firefighters in and out of the structure.

“It would have changed the entire outcome of that evening,” she said.

Sanders was also critical of the strategy used to fight it, pointing to an NFPA directive that takes firefighters out of the interior of a burning home when its occupants are safe and the structure has burned beyond the point of saving it.

Sanders said she sifted through reports, radio transmissions, photos and videos from a local father-daughter duo who were at the scene as well as witness and firefighter statements to map out the timeline.

She says scientific data points to a home that was unsalvageable just 15 minutes into firefighters’ arrival. A burned-up garage, fallen trusses and indications of an attic fire that had spread along the entire top of the house pointed to a home beyond repair, yet firefighters continued to be sent into the burning structure, she said.

Testimony will continue Monday, Nov. 10. The trial is expected to last through the week.