A Whiteside County jury has awarded $31.5 million to the widow and two young daughters of a Sterling firefighter killed in the line of duty four years ago.

The verdict in favor of Brittney Ramos, suing in connection with the December 2021 death of her husband, Lt. Garrett Ramos, found that former Rock Falls Fire Chief Cris Bouwens and Rock Falls Fire Chief Ken Wolf, who was a deputy chief at the time of the fire, were each 50% to blame for Ramos’ death. The city of Rock Falls also was a defendant in the case.

The verdict came in about 4:20 p.m., just three hours after the jury began its deliberations.

Over seven days of testimony, the jury listened to evidence to determine if the two Rock Falls fire officials should be found liable for on-scene decisions they made in the hours after the fire broke out late Dec. 3, 2021, at 10031 Ridge Road in Rock Falls.

The fire, which started in the one-story home’s garage, was called in to dispatchers at 11:04 p.m. Dec. 3, with Ramos arriving at the scene with a Sterling fire crew to assist the Rock Falls department.

Ramos, who had been fighting the fire from inside the burning home, was heading out of the home to get his air supply replenished when he fell through a hole in the floor and into the basement about midnight Dec. 4, about an hour after the fire began.

He was able to issue two mayday calls from the basement – a basement that fire officials did not know existed at the time. Command officers heard the mayday calls, but did not know who was issuing them, where the firefighter was located, or what the problem was. They initially identified another firefighter as being the one they thought was missing; when he was found, no further work was done to make sure no one else had made the call, according to testimony.

Ramos, who fire investigators say didn’t get hurt in the fall, was walking around the basement to find a way out, but didn’t find one. They determined he lived for about 17 minutes after he fell into the basement, dying from asphyxia after running out of air. His body was recovered at 1:13 a.m. Dec. 4.

Brittney Ramos filed a civil lawsuit in December 2022, claiming Bouwens and Wolf, who was the accountability officer at the scene, showed a willful and wanton disregard that caused her husband’s death.

During closing statements on Friday morning, Ramos’ attorney Michael Gallagher asked the jury to consider a string of failures as it weighed the evidence:

• Bouwens’ failure to ask the residents of the home, who were on scene, if there was a basement. Firefighters did not learn the home had a basement until after receiving mayday calls from a fallen firefighter at 12:03 a.m. Not knowing there was a basement put firefighters who were working the interior of the burning structure at risk because of potential floor collapse and holes developing.

• Bouwens’ failure to appoint a safety officer, as soon as a senior trained official was available, to oversee the scene. Ramos’ attorneys have said former Dixon Rural Fire Chief Sid Aurand arrived at the scene at 11:40 p.m., but Bouwens didn’t appoint Aurand as safety officer until three minutes after two mayday calls were heard at 12:03 a.m.

• Failure to withdraw interior firefighters from the burning home in a timely manner as fire conditions worsened. The fire initially began in the unattached garage. Throughout the next hour, firefighters battled a blaze that had spread into and across the home’s attic, with fire apparent to firefighters as they used tools to pull down ceilings as they worked to save the property. All residents were out of the home safely, yet firefighters were sent back into the burning structure as trusses were falling and holes were developing in the floor.

• Failed to initiate a personnel accountability report in a timely manner so that all firefighters were accounted for.

• Failure to administer PAR properly.

• Failure to properly train for mayday calls and PAR response.

The city of Rock Falls, Bouwens, and Wolf countered that Ramos was partially responsible for missteps that contributed to his own death. Defense attorney Michael Kujawa said Ramos did not maintain crew integrity because he was not with his firefighting partner at the time he fell, and that he should have left the home sooner to get air, as other firefighters had. Kujawa also questioned why Ramos did not provide his name, location, or problem when making the mayday call.