STERLING, Ill. — The Illinois Occupational Safety and Health Administration released its final report on the death of Sterling firefighter Capt. Garrett Ramos Monday, Sept. 12, which includes responses from both Sterling and Rock Falls about errors they believed to have existed in OSHA's original incident report.
Ramos died in the early hours of Dec. 4, 2021, after the floor collapsed beneath him while fighting a house fire in rural Rock Falls.
The original report, released back in April, details the cause of the posthumously named captain's death and 11 other indirect causes, including issues with the crew's radios.
Both Rock Falls and Sterling were fined by OSHA after Ramos' death. Rock Falls was cited for $12,000 and Sterling for $24,000. Rock Falls was issued two willful violations, one serious violation and a danger letter. Sterling was issued three willful violations, two serious violations and a danger letter.
Since the initial report's release, each city has met with the Illinois Department of Labor to have "informal conferences" about the incident, according to Sterling City Manager Scott Shumard.
The cities addressed six observations in the original incident report that are included, along with OSHA's response, in an appendix in the final report.
OSHA said these were included "in the interests of accuracy."
In its report, OSHA had said one of the indirect causes of Ramos' death was that firefighters entering the home weren't checked to see that they were operating on the designated fireground frequency.
Rock Falls and Sterling claim "all evidence reflects that firefighters on scene were on the designated fireground frequency." OSHA responded in the final report that evidence does not show radio checks were performed before and it's known that Ramos was not on the designated fireground frequency when he transmitted his mayday call.
The cities also say that construction and time of day made it difficult to identify the presence of a basement during the initial 360 of the house, adding that the basement windows were covered up on one side. OSHA responded, "while these factors may have made size up more difficult, a basement window was present on the (rear side) of the home, and the occupants were at the scene to provide detailed information about the structure."
On April 14, IDOL delivered citations to each city in response to Ramos' death. Citations were later abated and an amended report was released on May 10, according to a May 23 letter from Illinois OSHA to Shumard.
Shumard told News 8 that Sterling has paid its $24,000 fine.
The full report with city responses can be viewed by clicking/tapping here.
In addition to 11 indirect causes of Ramos' death, the final report includes the original 15 recommendations given to the two fire departments to reduce the likelihood of future firefighter fatalities.
The City of Sterling told News 8 on Tuesday that it's providing training to its fire department to reduce the risk of anything like this ever happening again. Those pieces of training have included rapid intervention training, "two in, two out" requirements, air management training, and command and control training for fire scenes.
Watch | Sterling community comes together for funeral of Capt. Garrett Ramos