Rock Falls, Sterling fire departments working to build new training facility in memory of fallen firefighter

ROCK FALLS – Members of the Rock Falls and Sterling fire departments are asking the cities to form an intergovernmental agreement as one of several steps needed to build a shared firefighting training facility.

A needs assessment for the two fire departments found that they “lacked some facilities to conduct realistic scenario-based training and solutions at our local level,” Rock Falls Fire Department Capt. Kyle Sommers said during the Oct. 17 Rock Falls City Council meeting. “That resulted in a gap between our current training system and our desired outcome.”

The assessment was done in the wake of the death of Lt. Garrett Ramos of the Sterling Fire Department, who died Dec. 4, 2021, after falling through the floor of a burning home in rural Rock Falls.

He was discovered unresponsive in a basement that, at the time, fire command didn’t know existed, about 30 minutes after two of his mayday calls went unanswered.

Ramos, 38, was the first Sterling firefighter to die in the line of duty.

The Garrett Ramos Training Facility Cooperative was formed between Sterling and Rock Falls “in an effort to construct the proper facility for our organizations,” said Sommers, co-chairman of the cooperative’s committee.

He said he expects the project – which is planned to be completed in phases – will take about five years.

“We want to get the facility to where it’s completed enough that we can use it,” Sommers said. “Once we get the actual building in place, we can begin using it right then, even if we have other things that we want to add to the site [later on].”

Neither Sterling or Rock Falls fire departments have an easily accessible facility in which to conduct realistic scenarios, he said.

Such training is an immediate need identified by Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Fire Protection Association guidelines, Sommers said.

In April 2022, OSHA released its initial incident report, dated March 8, 2022, outlining multiple “willful” errors made during the fire.

The final report was released in December 2022, and as a result, the cities of Sterling and Rock Falls paid a combined $36,000 in fines for “lapses” in each department’s policies and procedures.

Those lapses contributed to Ramos’ death from “asphyxia caused by inhalation of products of combustion due to a structure fire,” according to the report.

Although the direct cause of Ramos’ death was “exposure to respiratory hazards,” the indirect causes included a failure “to identify the presence or absence of a basement,” and a failure to ensure that firefighters entering the home “were operating on the designated [radio] frequency,” among other things, OSHA said.

Committee members accepted a site the city offered in the Rock Fall Industrial Park on Beltway Drive, Sommers said.

“We wanted a site that was large enough to meet [International Organization for Standardization] requirements for facility training and allow for future expansion,” he said. “We also wanted to be close enough to our response areas so that we could conduct those trainings while we’re on duty without compromising our response times unnecessarily.”

Similar facilities cost between $500,000 and $700,000, Sommers said. Funding options are being explored, including grants, in-kind donations, funding from the two cities, private donations and fundraisers, he said.

Sommers asked council members to take the steps needed to enter an intergovernmental agreement or memorandum of understanding with Sterling, ensuring that both fire departments would have equal access to the facility.

“I think it’s a good thing to have,” Alderman Brian Snow said. “The loss of life that happened a year ago, it’s kind of opened the eyes to what we need to do as departments to be cohesive together to make sure that everybody knows the game plan. … I am in full support.”