Widow of Illinois Firefighter Awarded $31.5 Million in Wrongful-Death Trial
A jury in Whiteside County, Illinois, has returned a verdict of $31.5 million in favor of the widow and two young daughters of Garrett Ramos, a lieutenant with the Sterling Fire Department, who died in the line of duty in December 2021.
The fire occurred in a one-story home in rural Rock Falls, Illinois in the evening of December 3, 2021. The initial call came in at 11:04 p.m., for a fire in the home’s garage. The Sterling Fire Department responded as mutual aid to the Rock Falls Fire Department. Lieutenant Ramos was part of the Sterling crew on the scene.
While operating inside the structure, Lt. Ramos exited to replenish his air supply. At about midnight, he fell through the floor into a basement that had not previously been known to the incident commanders. He made two mayday calls from the basement; command officers heard the mayday calls but were unable to establish the caller’s identity, location, or nature of the problem.
He remained in the basement for approximately 17 minutes before his body was found at 1:13 a.m. and his cause of death was determined to be asphyxia due to inhalation of combustion products.
In December 2022, Lt. Ramos’s widow, Brittney Ramos, filed a wrongful-death suit naming the City of Rock Falls, former Fire Chief Cris Bouwens, and then-Deputy Chief (now Chief) Ken Wolf, who had served as the accountability officer during the fire event.
The complaint alleged that the fire officials “willfully and wantonly” disregarded the safety of firefighters by failing to follow proper procedures, including interior command, accountability, mayday response and floor collapse/basement identification.
Defense counsel contended that Lt. Ramos bore some responsibility, noting that when his partner left the structure due to low air, Ramos remained. They also questioned his mayday call—specifically that he identified neither his name, exact location nor nature of the problem.
After a seven-day trial, the jury deliberated for about three hours and returned a verdict on November 14, 2025, awarding $31.5 million to Mrs. Ramos and the couple’s children. The jury found that Chief Bouwens and Chief Wolf were each 50 % responsible for Lt. Ramos’s death. The city of Rock Falls was also a named defendant, and while it is likely it will be responsible for the damages under the legal theory of respondeat superior, none of the media outlets have reported that.
Key failures cited by testimony included:
- No inquiry upon arrival about whether the structure had a basement; the basement was unknown until after the mayday calls.
- Failure to appoint a Safety Officer at the scene timely, despite a senior trained official arriving at 11:40 p.m., but appointment not made until after the mayday calls at 12:03 a.m.
- Failure to withdraw interior crews when fire conditions worsened and holes (floor collapse) were developing; the fire had spread from the garage into the home and attic.
- Failure to initiate a Personnel Accountability Report (PAR) promptly after the mayday calls; manpower tracking was flawed and the accountability officer overlooked Lt. Ramos on the board.
- Failure to train personnel for Maydays and PARs.
During the trial, Mrs. Ramos testified to the impact of her husband’s death:
- Hearing Garrett saying mayday six times and seeing no one do anything… it is so hard to watch that.
- I realized he was in the basement for 33 minutes and the inactions that were taken — the basic disregard for his safety.
UPDATE: Here is an interview with the Plaintiff’s attorney and expert.
Here is a link to our earlier coverage, plus additional details about the incident and OSHA citations.
