Command Support Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Twelve tips to improve situational awareness – SAM 383

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Support, Communications, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Interruptions, Line of Duty Death, Long-Term Memory, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Overload, Progress Reports, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Staffing, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, a special guest (Santa) presents twelve tips to improve situational awareness while working in high-risk, high consequence environments. Merry Christmas everyone! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and ole Santa is feeling the situational awareness love. Surely, you’ve heard of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” – You know […]

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Six Red Flags for Danger – SAM 361

Leave a Comment / Benchmarks, Checklists, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Comprehension, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Perception, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Training, understaffing, Understanding, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode we discuss six red flags for danger that may get overlooked or ignored at a structure fire. The red flags discussed in the episode are clues and cues that provide conscious (overt) awareness of what is going on or subconscious (covert) awareness of what may be going on. The red flags

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Working Command – SAM 360

Leave a Comment / Automation, Benchmarks, Checklists, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Interruptions, Judgment, Leadership, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Mission, Neuroscience, Personnel location, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

In this episode explores how situational awareness may be impacted when the first arriving officer establishes a “working command.” I get asked a lot of questions about what the first arriving company officer should do at a working structure fire. Specifically, the debate revolves around two basic premise. Should the first arriving company officer assume

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19 Ways Communications can Impact SA – SAM 359

Leave a Comment / Auditory exclusion, Checklists, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Confabulation, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Interruptions, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Multitasking, Neuroscience, Overload, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Technology, Training, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode we discuss 19 ways that communications issues can impact Situational Awareness. First responders spend a lot of time together, on calls, in the station, and in many cases in social settings outside of work. All of this interaction builds relationships that allow responders to trust their lives to each other. We’ll

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Conducting Realistic Fire Training – SAM 358

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attitude, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training / Rich Gasaway

In this episode we put the shoe on the other foot… and I am interviewed by Chris Crawford is a firefighter with the Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania Fire Department and a Public Administration major at Point Park University. Chris was writing a paper on firefighter training for his Applications of Fire Research Class and asked to

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Five Situational Awareness Lessons from a LODD Incident – SAM 354

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Equipment, Error Creep, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Goals, Gut Feeling, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Information overload, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Meta Awareness, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Neuroscience, PAR, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Prediction, Preoccupation, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

On June 2, 2011, the San Francisco Fire Department suffered the tragic loss of 2 firefighters at 133 Berkeley Way. The episode shares some valuable situational awareness lessons from this tragic incident. The San Francisco Fire Department conducted an internal review of the incident and issued a 156-page report on their findings. Many of the

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Seven Situational Awareness Thieves (Episode 330)

Accountability, Assumptions, Auditory exclusion, Bravado, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Human Behavior, Human Error, Invincible, Judgment, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Tunnel Vision / Rich Gasaway

You might think that by now the importance of completing a 360-degree size-up would be second nature for firefighters. But it’s not. In fact, failing to complete a proper size-up remains one of the most often cited contributing factors in NIOSH Line-of-Duty death reports. There are lots of reasons why proper size-ups are not completed.

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The Impact of Understaffing (Episode 328)

Accountability, Anger, Assumptions, Building Construction, Command Support, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Expectations, Experience, Human Error, Human Factors, Leadership, Mission, Multitasking, Overload, Overwhelm, Personnel location, Pressure, Progress Reports, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Staffing, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing / Rich Gasaway

The pandemic has been tough on everyone, especially first responders who have stepped up to the task. But for many first response agencies, the worst is yet to come as the economic fallout will likely create budget shortfalls that will, in turn, cause fire departments to reduce staffing and services. This show looks at the

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Situational Awareness Best Practices for Incident Commanders (Episode 326)

Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Biases, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Equipment, Expectations, Explicit Knowledge, Goals, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Interruptions, Intuition, Long-Term Memory, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Overload, Overwhelm, Pattern Matching, Perception, Preoccupation, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Time Distortion, understaffing, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

There are three component parts to situational awareness – perception, understanding and prediction. There are barriers that can impact awareness on all three levels. The application of best practices can help incident commanders reduce the impact of barriers. Length: 35 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video. __________________________________________________ All of our

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Commercial Building Mayday. The Atascocita Fire Story – Part 2 (Episode 304)

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, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Time Distortion, Training / Rich Gasaway

Today’s episode is Part 2 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: 63 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking

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