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Nine Dangerous Mindsets: Part 8 – The Slacker

3 Comments / Article, Complacency, Culture, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Training / Rich Gasaway

Welcome to part eight of the Nine Dangerous Mindsets series. In this installment I’m going to take on one of the most challenging and perhaps one of the most frustrating mindsets – the Slacker. This mindset is dangerous to situational awareness because a Slacker does so little to ensure his or her personal readiness for […]

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Episode 231 | Kevin LaChapelle Interview Part 1

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fatigue, Fear, Habits, Mayday, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Progress Reports, Radios, Response Time Delays, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Fire Chief Kevin LaChapelle from the Franklin, New Hampshire Fire Department sharing the details of mayday event that occurred in Franklin. Length: 60 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your

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Nine Dangerous Mindsets – Part 6: The Silent

1 Comment / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress / Rich Gasaway

Welcome to part six of this nine-part series on dangerous mindsets that can impact situational awareness. I appreciate all of the very kind feedback I have been receiving on this series on Facebook, Twitter and by email. Your positive feedback energizes me so much. Thank you. In this segment we’re going to discuss the Silent member.

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Nine Dangerous Mindsets – Part 5: The Stubborn

8 Comments / Accountability, Article, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Welcome to the fifth of the nine-part series on dangerous mindsets that can impact situational awareness and, subsequently, the safety of your team. In this article I am going to address the stubborn team member. This individual can be described as one set in their ways, closed minded and perhaps even defiant. Their narrowed view

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Nine Dangerous Mindsets: Part 4 – The Superior

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Leadership, Mental Models, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Welcome to the fourth installment of the Dangerous Mindsets series. Previously I talked about the dangerous mindsets of the Starter, the Subordinate and the Specialist. This article addresses the Superior or, more appropriately, the Superior with personal issues and how that can impact situational awareness and team safety. It would be rare for a supervisor

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Nine Dangerous Mindsets – Part 2: The Subordinate

3 Comments / Article, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Being a subordinate is an inherently essential skill for first responders. Borrowing a line from the movie A Few Good Men “We follow orders or people die.” This is true. However, consistent with the outcome of the movie, sometimes BECAUSE we follow orders people die. An example of this would be when a decision maker

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Episode 226 | New Carlisle FD LODD Review

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Error Creep, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Information overload, Interruptions, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Muscle Memory, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Personnel location, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Teamwork, Tunnel Vision, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

This episode is a review of the lessons learned from the August 5, 2014 structure fire incident that killed Assistant Fire Chief Jamie Middlebrook. Length: 36 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

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Episode 225 | Chris Baker Interview – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Fatigue, Fear, Gut Feeling, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Overwhelm, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part interview with firefighter Chris Baker, sharing a near-miss event at a Chevron Richmond Refinery in California. Disclaimer: The comments shared during this interview are of the individual and do not represent the views of any company, employer or agency. Length: 46 minutes Click the YouTube icon to

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Episode 224 | Chris Baker Interview – Part 1

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Excited, Expectations, Fatigue, Fear, Gut Feeling, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Overwhelm, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 1 of a 2-part interview with firefighter Chris Baker, sharing a near-miss event at a Chevron Richmond Refinery in California. Disclaimer: The comments shared during this interview are of the individual and do not represent the views of any company, employer or agency. Length: 44 minutes Click the YouTube icon to

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Episode 222 | Doug Abernathy Interview – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Close Call, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Error Creep, Experience, Gut Feeling, Habits, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Training, understaffing / Rich Gasaway

This episode revisits Part 2 of an interview with Indianapolis Health & Safety Chief Doug Abernathy discussing his near-miss at the Athletic Club Hotel fire on February 5, 1992 Length: 53 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational

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