Rock Falls officials say they’re reviewing all options to pay the $31.5 million a Whiteside County jury awarded to the family of a Sterling firefighter killed in the line of duty four years ago.

At Rock Falls’ City Council meeting Tuesday, Nov. 18, City Administrator Robbin D. Blackert addressed the civil lawsuit verdict in an emotional statement that came four days after the jury found the city of Rock Falls, former Rock Falls Fire Chief Cris Bouwens and Rock Falls Fire Chief Ken Wolf liable for the December 2021 death of Sterling Fire Lt. Garrett Ramos.

The amount owed is “far in excess of the city’s available insurance coverage,” Blackert said Tuesday night. “The city will review all options in determining the best course of action.”

Blackert also noted the changes the Rock Falls Fire Department has made to upgrade its training standards in the years since Ramos‘s death and expressed sympathy for his family.

She declined to comment further on the issue, saying, “this is the one statement that we [Rock Falls] will make.”

Brittney Ramos, Ramos’s wife, filed the lawsuit in December 2022, claiming Bouwens and Wolf, who was a deputy chief at the time of the fire, showed a willful and wanton disregard that caused her husband’s death. The jury found that Bouwens and Wolf were each 50% to blame for Ramos’s death.

The fire was reported by the home’s basement resident at 11:04 p.m. Dec. 3, 2021, after the fire started in the one-story home’s attached garage. Ramos arrived at the burning home on Ridge Road in Rock Falls at 11:21 p.m. as part of a Sterling fire crew assisting the Rock Falls Fire Department.

Ramos, who was fighting the fire while inside the home, was leaving the burning structure to replenish his air supply around midnight when he fell through a hole in the floor into the basement. Fire officials did not know the home had a basement at the time he fell.

He was able to issue two mayday calls, but command officers did not know who was issuing them, where the firefighter was located or what the problem was. They initially identified another firefighter as being who 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.

About 30 minutes later, firefighters realized Ramos had not been seen for a while and began searching for him. He was found in the basement in a room adjacent to the room where he fell.

Fire investigators said Ramos was not injured during the fall and had been walking around the basement to find a way out. They believe Ramos survived for about 17 minutes after he fell into the basement and died from asphyxia after running out of air. Firefighters recovered his body at 1:13 a.m. Dec. 4.

The trial ran over the course of two weeks and included testimony from firefighters who were at the scene, Bouwens, Wolf, former Sterling Fire Chief Michael Dettman, expert witnesses, Brittney Ramos and Ramos’ parents.

During closing statements Friday morning, Ramos’s 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. Dec. 4. Not knowing there was a basement put firefighters 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’s attorneys 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 the 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.

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