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Decision Making

These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to decision making.

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 /

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 […]

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

Physical Condition Assessments Improve Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Checklists, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Fatigue, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, PAR, Physical Fitness, Safety, Stress, Technology, Weather /

One of the primary purposes of a Personnel Accountability Report (PAR) is to ensure  the incident commander and safety officer know where crews are and that all members are accounted for. In the event of a rapid change in conditions or an unforeseen turn of events, the PAR can be used to quickly account for

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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 /

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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