The widow of a Sterling firefighter killed in the line of duty testified at the Whiteside County Courthouse on Wednesday, telling a 12-member jury how her husband’s death four years ago has affected her and their two young daughters.

Brittney Ramos was on the stand for about an hour Wednesday, the seventh day of a civil trial in which the jury will decide if Rock Falls fire officials are responsible for Sterling Fire Lt. Garrett Ramos’ December 2021 death.

Garrett Ramos, 38, died after he fell through a burning floor and into a basement that fire officials overseeing the blaze at 10031 Ridge Road in Rock Falls didn’t know existed until it was too late.

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Retired Sterling Fire Chief Michael Dettman wipes away a tear during testimony Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, during the Ramos wrongful death trial in Whiteside County Court. (Alex T. Paschal)

Brittney filed the 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 was Rock Falls’ deputy fire chief at the time.

Brittney is claiming that the two fire officials’ willful and wanton disregard caused her husband’s death. She is seeking damages for herself and the couple’s two young daughters, an amount that attorneys said could reach into the tens of millions of dollars.

“I knew how lucky I was to marry Garrett. I always felt so lucky to be his wife,” she told the jury while they viewed photos that included one of Garrett and Brittney on their wedding day. “I have a hard time looking at this picture. I don’t recognize that girl anymore.”

Her testimony came after days of testimony given by fire officials and firefighters from Rock Falls and Sterling, who were providing mutual aid at the fire scene, as well as fire investigators and Garrett Ramos’ parents.

Under questioning by her attorney, Michael Gallagher, Brittney testified about marrying Garrett in 2016, four years after he had joined the Sterling Fire Department after serving as a firefighter in South Carolina. Brittney grew up in a Chicago suburb and met Garrett on a blind date arranged by Garrett’s sister.

His hometown of Sterling, where his parents and family still lived, and serving on the fire department where his dad had been employed for almost 30 years led him to apply at the Sterling Fire Department, Brittney said.

Garrett was hired by the Sterling Fire Department, bought a home and married Brittney. Within a couple of years, they had a daughter; 19 months later, their second daughter was born. Garrett continued his work at the fire department, rising to the rank of lieutenant. Brittney was employed at Erie Public Schools as a school counselor, helping students as they decided their future plans.

“We had a beautiful life,” she said of her husband, whom she described as the dad who would polish his daughters’ nails and French braid their hair. “We enjoyed the simple things.”

She recalled the last night of her husband’s life – Dec. 3, 2021. He had been working on shift at the Sterling Fire Department that night, the same night as Sterling’s Christmas Walk. Brittney, their daughters, Garrett’s parents and other family members headed to the station for treats. She recalled how the day had been a long one: She had been wrangling the girls during the Christmas Walk and was stressed out.

As she left the station that night, the couple bid good night, and she told Garrett she’d see him the next day. She told the jury that she got home, and Garrett texted her to check in, telling her he was looking forward to getting home the following day and being able to spend time with his family.

Just a few hours later, Brittney was awakened from a deep sleep by the sound of someone knocking at her door. It was Sterling Fire Chief Mike Dettman and the department’s chaplain, who told her there had been an accident and that she needed to get to the hospital. Brittney was driven to the hospital and said she remembers sprinting from the car to get inside to see her husband, who she thought was alive but badly hurt.

She was directed to a room to wait. She remembers there were people there, but she doesn’t recall who they were. The room was quiet.

She told the jury that when she was told her husband had died, she was unable to process it.

“I just kept repeating, ”He’s too good. He’s too good. It can’t be him. He’s too good. He’s too good,’" she said.

The days that followed were a blur, with family, friends, and the Sterling and Erie communities helping her and the girls get through it. She said that at that point, all she knew was Garrett had fallen through a floor. She said she thought he had probably hit his head and took comfort in thinking he had not suffered.

Then, a couple of weeks after the fire, Garrett’s best firefighting friend, who was not at the scene that night, and a couple of other friends visited to tell Brittney what they had heard about the fire.

She also saw the Occupational Health and Safety Administration report that laid out what had happened.

“I realized he was in the basement for 33 minutes and the inactions that were taken – the basic disregard for his safety," she told the jury.

The jury over the past week has heard testimony from Ramos’ attorneys alleging a string of mistakes by fire officials. Among them:

• Bouwens did not ask the resident who called in the fire if the home had a basement. By not asking if there was a basement and not determining that there was one, fire officials were putting firefighters in harm’s way.

• Fire officials learned upon arriving at the scene that all residents were safely out of the home. When the home had burned to the point of being unsalvageable, command should have pulled firefighters from the interior of the burning home and changed the firefighter strategy from offensive to defensive, Gallagher said. Fire investigator Wendy Sanders’ expert testimony on Friday indicated that no one should have been in the home after 11:25 p.m., about 21 minutes after the fire was called in.

• The fire was reported to be under control over the radio, when at the same time, the floor over the basement was developing holes. Firefighters were still in the home. This was at 11:54 p.m.

• PAR, a personnel accountability report, should have been called immediately after the first mayday was heard at 12:03 a.m. to make sure all firefighters were accounted for. After the mayday call was heard on the radio twice in 60 seconds, it took fire officials four minutes to call PAR, according to a video played for the jury.

• A firefighter they thought was missing was quickly deemed safe; however, no one asked the firefighter who was found if he was the one who called mayday.

• Wolf was working the accountability board, which had five firefighters listed as being in the burning home at the time of the mayday call. Through hearing communication on the radio, Wolf determined that four firefighters were accounted for, but he overlooked Garrett Ramos as being on that board. Wolf testified that this happened because firefighters are normally tracked by their engine company as they work in their groups; this fire was different because firefighters split up to work with other companies, he said. He started following names instead of companies to try to keep it straight.

• Gallagher said Bouwens, who was incident commander, was not communicating with command staff or firefighters, nor was communication being effectively forwarded to Wolf, who was tracking firefighters from about 150 feet away.

Defense attorney Michael Kujawa has maintained that Garrett Ramos bears some responsibility for his death since he remained in the burning structure after the firefighter he was paired with left the structure because he was low on air.

Kujawa also has pointed to Dettman’s role as operations officer as one that gave him authority to take more of a proactive role in ensuring firefighters were accounted for – specifically in how the mayday call was responded to and the PAR was called. Kujawa, while questioning Dettman Wednesday morning, also said Dettman could have used his radio to order Ramos out of the building when his two firefighting partners left the building for more air.

Presumably, Ramos also was low on air, and instead of remaining inside to relay fire condition information to another crew entering the building, he should have left the building and talked to the other firefighters outside, Kujawa said Wednesday.

Time-stamped photos and video of the fire have been shown to the jury, with Gallagher walking the jury through Bouwens’, Dettman’s and Wolf’s actions at the scene.

While those videos and photos have been shown to the jury throughout the trial, Brittney said Wednesday afternoon that she had not heard the recorded mayday calls made by her husband nor viewed the videos of the burning home until they were played for the jury.

“Hearing Garrett saying mayday six times and seeing no one do anything, seeing Chief Bouwens pacing at the scene and no one is doing anything,” she said, “it is so hard to watch that.”

The trial is expected to continue through the end of the week.