When the first Sterling fire engine arrived at the scene of a rural Rock Falls garage fire Dec. 3, 2021, Sterling Fire Lt. Garrett Ramos was on it.

Part of a Sterling Fire Department crew dispatched to assist the Rock Falls Fire Department at 10031 Ridge Road, Ramos arrived at the scene at 11:21 p.m. – 17 minutes after a resident living in the home’s basement called 911 from outside the structure.

Just two hours after Ramos arrived on scene, firefighters would be removing his body from the basement – his death caused by asphyxiation after he fell through the burning floor and his tanks ran out of air.

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Brittney C. Ramos’s attorney, Michael Gallagher, delivers his opening statement Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in the Garrett Ramos wrongful death civil case in Morrison. (Alex T. Paschal)

It will be up to a Whiteside County jury – which on Tuesday, Nov. 4, began hearing testimony in the civil lawsuit case filed by Ramos’s widow – to decide whether his death was the result of willful and wanton misconduct on the part of two Rock Falls Fire Department officials heading up the scene or if Ramos’s own actions contributed to his death.

If Brittney C. Ramos’s legal team can prove former Rock Falls Fire Chief Cris Bouwens and then-Deputy Fire Chief Ken Wolf, who is now chief, showed conscious disregard for Ramos’s safety through the decisions they made, the jury could award damages. Those damages, for pain and suffering to her and the couple’s two children, could reach into the tens of millions of dollars, according to attorneys.

The jury was selected Monday. Attorneys for both sides made their opening statements Tuesday morning.

Whiteside County Circuit Court Judge James Heuerman stressed to the jury that opening statements are not evidence. Instead, he said, such statements allow jurors to see what the plaintiff and defense attorneys will try to prove over the trial’s expected two-week duration.

Brittney Ramos’s attorney, Michael Gallagher, laid out a strategy that relies heavily on the timeline from when flames were discovered up until the time Ramos’s body was found.

He is arguing that Bouwens and Wolf, who had both been sworn into their positions just six months prior to the fire, made several missteps that led to Ramos’s death.

Residing just 2 miles from the scene of the fire, Bouwens drove straight there. He was the first to arrive at the burning home at 11:08 p.m. As such, he was incident commander overseeing the entire scene that ended up including 10 fire departments and 39 firefighters battling the blaze.

Gallagher said Bouwens, when he first arrived, did not question the witnesses at the scene to learn if there was a basement. That question, Gallagher said, is very important because the presence of a basement greatly increases the risks when fighting fire.

Gallagher said everyone was out of the house when the 911 call was made.

The jury heard that 911 audio tape Tuesday. In the audio, family members told the dispatcher that a dog and a cat were inside and led the dispatcher to instruct the family to remain outside.

Gallagher said that when arriving at a scene, firefighters are to ask bystanders and witnesses questions about whether everyone is out, where the fire started, how long it had been burning, if there are any accelerants and if there’s a basement.

He maintained that once firefighters knew everyone was out safe, they should have stopped trying to save the home. By that point, fire was shooting through the roof and in the attic, and a garage was collapsing.

“We risk a lot to save a lot and we risk a little to save a little,” he said of how firefighters are to mitigate risk at the scene of the fire.

Gallagher said firefighters were fighting the fire in an offensive manner inside the building, trying to save a building that had already been virtually destroyed by flames.

Firefighters heading toward the fire who arrived after Bouwens said they could see the fire’s orange glow from 2 miles away, he said.

He said another contributing factor was the confusion of how firefighters were accounted for once Ramos made a mayday call.

Gallagher said there were five firefighters inside the home and only four were positively accounted for. He placed the blame on Wolf for overlooking Ramos’s name on a board that he used at the command scene as firefighters were determining who had been accounted for.

It would take another 33 minutes for firefighters, thinking everyone was accounted for, to learn through Ramos’s firefighting partner that he was missing.

Defense attorney Michael Kujawa represented Bouwens, Wolf, and by extension the city of Rock Falls, which is also named as a defendant.

Kujawa said the plaintiffs are wrongfully blaming Bouwens and Wolf. He said four other command staff members were in place at the scene to assist Bouwens. As for Bouwens not being aware there was a basement, Kujawa said Bouwens had completed a 360-degree survey of the burning home.

He said there were no windows apparent that would point to a basement’s existence. It turned out one basement window was boarded over and painted to match the home’s foundation. The other window was under a deck that was surrounded by latticework and couldn’t be seen. He said Bouwens, in hindsight, regrets not asking witnesses if there was a basement.

Kujawa maintained that Ramos was partly responsible for his own death because he and his partner weren’t working near each other at the time Ramos fell through the floor. He said a buddy system is always to be followed when fighting an interior fire.

Kujawa said Ramos also was on the wrong communications channel when he issued his mayday call. Gallagher said Ramos had been on the correct channel while fighting the fire, but that it switched to the wrong channel as a result of him falling through the floor.

Kujawa said he will prove that there is no evidence of willful or wanton misconduct or conscious disregard for Ramos’s safety. He said that while mistakes were made, all command staff and firefighters, including Ramos, had a duty to prevent injury.

“It’s not all on Cris,” he said. “It’s not all on Ken.”

Testimony will continue Wednesday, Nov. 5.