Rich Gasaway

Richard B. Gasaway served 33 years on the front lines as a firefighter, EMT-Paramedic and fire chief. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree while studying how individuals, teams and organizations develop and maintain situational awareness and make decisions in high stress, high consequence, time compressed environments. Dr. Gasaway is widely considered to be one of the nation's leading authorities on first responder situational awareness and decision making. His material has been featured and referenced in more than 400 book chapters, research projects, journal articles, podcasts, webinars and videos. His research and passion to improve workplace safety through improved situational awareness is unrivaled. Dr. Gasaway's leadership and safety programs have been presented to more than 42,000 first responders, emergency managers, medical providers, military personnel, aviation employees, industrial workers and business leaders throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Commercial Building Mayday. The Atascocita Fire Story – Part 1 (Episode 303)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Gut Feeling, Habits, Judgment, Leadership, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Miscommunications, Mission, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Radios, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Time Distortion, Training /

Today’s episode is Part 1 of my 2-part interview with three command officers from the Atascocita Fire Department in Houston, Texas, sharing a story of a commercial building fire that resulted in a mayday. Length: 67 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking […]

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Situational Awareness Lessons from a Line of Duty Death

Leave a Comment / Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Line of Duty Death, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Task Saturation, Teamwork /

Watch this  YouTube video detailing the circumstances of a firefighter line of duty death in which a firefighter from British Columbia was tragically killed when a shipping container exploded without warning. Oftentimes when a firefighter is killed in the line of duty the lessons are not shared. Credit to the department and the province for

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A Mental Health Mayday. The Laverne Friesen Story – Part 2 (Episode 302)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Attitude, Bravado, Close Call, Communications, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Ego, Emotions, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Illness, Invincible, Judgment, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Overwhelm, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress /

Today’s episode is Part 2 of my 2-part interview with Laverne Friesen, a first responder who is confronting the stigma of mental illness head-on as he shares his first-hand account of how work-related stress was leading him down a dark path toward suicide.  He shares intimate details of what that experience was like, how it

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Gasaway Safety Solutions slated to present to Delaware City Refining Company managers

Leave a Comment / News /

January 4, 2020 Gasaway Safety Solutions has been contracted to conduct a situational awareness training for managers at the Delaware City Refining Company in Delaware City, Delaware. “Based on our experience of working with oil refineries, we are well-versed in understanding the situational awareness and high-risk decision making of process operators working in oil refineries.

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Where Does Intuition Come From?

14 Comments / Attention Management, Checklists, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Human Behavior, Information overload, Intuition, Repetition, Safety, Tacit Knowledge /

  It is amazing how many articles and videos I have watched lately in which they are talking about decision making based on “gut feel.” It is also disheartening how many first responders I have interviewed who have admitted to me that they have dismissed their gut feelings and proceeded to do things that resulted

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A Mental Health Mayday. The Laverne Friesen Story – Part 1 (Episode 301)

1 Comment / Accountability, Anger, Attitude, Bravado, Close Call, Communications, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Ego, Emotions, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Illness, Invincible, Judgment, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Overwhelm, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress /

Today’s episode is Part 1 of my 2-part interview with Laverne Friesen, a first responder who is confronting the stigma of mental illness head-on as he shares his first-hand account of how work-related stress was leading him down a dark path toward suicide.  He shares intimate details of what that experience was like, how it

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Situational Awareness Matters!

Time to Task Completion is Critical for Situational Awareness

3 Comments / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Workload Management /

Your highest level of situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. In science, we call this projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or project, future events. This is accomplished through mental models you develop that are founded in your training and experience. But

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Heavy Content Fires – The Ryan Pennington Interview (Episode 300)

Leave a Comment / Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Human Behavior, Judgment, Meta Awareness, Mindfulness, Perception Of Reality, Pre Arrival Lens, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Vigilance /

In this episode, I interview the foremost fire service expert on fighting “heavy content” fires (aka, hoarded environments).  The interview is packed with great ideas for first responders, and some tips for family members who are dealing with a family member afflicted with a hoarding disorder. Length: 57 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch

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The Midwest Fire Story – Brett Jensen Interview (Episode 299)

Leave a Comment / Automation, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Equipment, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mission, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Technology /

This episode is an interview with Midwest Fire Vice President and General Manager Brett Jensen, discussing the Midwest Fire way of doing business. Length: 58 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a

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