Complacency Archives - Page 5 of 13 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Surviving the Fire Service – The Todd LeDuc Interview (Episode 307)

1 Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Biases, Bravado, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Fear, Human Behavior, Illness, Invincible, Line of Duty Death, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Physical Fitness, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Vigilance, Weather, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

An interview with Retired Broward County Operations Chief Todd LeDuc, discussing first responder health, wellness and survival. Length: 63 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 higher level, check out the […]

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It’s Only A Vehicle Fire!

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Complacency, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Safety / Rich Gasaway

I’d like to thank one of the loyal Situational Awareness Matters readers (whose name and department I am holding in confidence) for sending me a picture and a story about a van fire, no, a ‘routine van fire‘ his department had recently. On the arrival of the engine, the officer reported a working fire and

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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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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 / Rich Gasaway

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 / Rich Gasaway

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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Surrounded by Fire: The Roree Payment Story – Part 2 (Episode 298)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Building Construction, Close Call, Command Location, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Judgment, Mindfulness, Mission, Near Miss, Optimism, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Prediction, Risk, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Technology, understaffing / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part interview with Clearview Fire & EMS Chief Roree Payment, sharing the details of a residential dwelling fire near-miss where he was caught in a fireball due to rapidly changing, wind-driven conditions. Length: 51 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If

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Surrounded by Fire: The Roree Payment Story – Part 1 (Episode 297)

This episode is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Clearview Fire & EMS Chief Roree Payment, sharing the details of a residential dwelling fire near-miss where he was caught in a fireball due to rapidly changing, wind-driven conditions. Length: 47 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If

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The Normalization of Deviance

8 Comments / Article, Assumptions, Competency, Complacency, Expectations, Experience, Human Behavior, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

It’s an odd term – normalization of deviance. But the term and the premise behind the term provides a valuable explanation as to some of the behaviors we observe in the first responder world. Defining the term Normalization: To make normal; to make an established standard. Deviance: Departing from the norm; performing

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Overconfidence – A Dangerous Minefield (Episode 296)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Automatic Action, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Ego, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Optimism, Over Confident, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Tacit Knowledge, Under Confident / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we review the Overconfidence chapter of my new book, How Smart Workers Use Situational Awareness to Improve Safety. Length: 28 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 higher level, check

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Trapped Under a Roof Collapse. The Mike Beutler Story – Part 2 (Episode 293)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Building Construction, Close Call, Command Presence, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Experience, Judgment, Mayday, Mission, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Radios, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Tunnel Vision / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part interview with Fire Chief Mike Beutler as he shares the details of an incident where he was trapped under a roof collapse while working at a commercial building fire. Length: 35 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are

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