Welcome to the second article in the four-part We Must Stop The Insanity situational awareness series. In Part 1, posted October 27, I talked about flawed size-ups. In this segment, I’m going to discuss why firefighters fail to be defensive when the fire conditions indicate offensive operations are inappropriate.
We Must Stop The Insanity: Part 2 Read More »
Firefighter Safety: Mistakes and Best Practices Program Length: 2 to 3 hours Appropriate for: First Responders (Fire, Police, EMS) Company Officers Training Officers Incident Commanders Risk Managers Program Description This program looks at a summary of 10 common mistakes and 10 best practices discovered from the presenter’s extensive evaluation of more than 500 near-miss reports
Firefighter Safety: Mistakes & Best Practices – Live Training Read More »
I am super excited to be able to share with you the features and enrollment options for the newly released Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. Length: 22 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher
Episode 132 | Online Academy Preview Read More »
The training practices used in many communities are setting up emergency response personnel for failure and flawed situational awareness. The sad part is most don’t even realize they’re doing it. When casualties occur, so do investigations. The investigations result in recommendations for how to prevent future casualty events. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and
We Must Stop The Insanity: Part 1 Read More »
In this episode, we discuss five best practices for managing mental workload under stressful working conditions. Length: 26 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check out the Situational Awareness Matters Online
Episode 131 | Best practices for managing mental workload Read More »
Oftentimes when I am talking with first responders about the role of situational awareness and casualty incidents, especially the ones that have recently occurred, they share with me their opinions and frustrations about the performance of the responders and the decisions made by command staff. If I have learned anything, it’s first responders are opinionated
Stop Judging to Improve Situational Awareness Read More »
In this episode, we discuss the phenomenon known as auditory exclusion (going deaf under stress) and I explain how it happens and how it can impact situational awareness and decision making. Length: 35 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational
Episode 130 | Auditory Exclusion – Going deaf under stress Read More »
During an open conference call recently, I had the opportunity to discuss situational awareness challenges and opportunities (which, by the way… was really enjoyable) I had a chief officer from Wisconsin (thanks Lance) ask a question about company officer priorities on sizing up a residential dwelling fire. It’s a question I get asked often and have built
Four Size-up Priorities to Improve Situational Awareness Read More »
In this episode, Beaver Dam Fire & Rescue Chief Alan Mannel shares the details of a shootout incident that occurred while he was serving as a police officer in Illinois. Length: 57 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational
Episode129 | Interview with Beaver Dam Fire & Rescue Chief Alan Mannel Read More »
Situational awareness starts with capturing clues and cues in your environment (perception) and then understanding what those clues and cues mean (comprehension). At a structure fire the process of capturing information should involve a complete 360-degree size-up of the scene. Many departments have policies that stipulate the completion of a 360-degree size up. Yet, for
Completing the 360-Degree Size-Up Read More »
