These articles related to firefighter situational awareness.
This episode chronicles a father’s story of inspiration from tragedy. Listen in as I interview Fire Chief Patrick Kenny from the Village of Western Springs, Illinois Fire Department. Chief Kenny talks candidly about losing his son, Sean, to suicide – and the importance of mental health for first responders. Length: 33 minutes click the YouTube […]
Episode 20: Mayday for Mental Health Read More »
This close call survival story is an interview with Aurora Fire Lieutenant Sean Dolan sharing amazing lessons from the house fire where he was caught in a flashover and sustained second and third-degree burns. Sean is very candid in sharing the details of what happened and how close he came to death. Length: 63 minutes
Episode 18: Situational Awareness Lessons Learned in Two Minutes Read More »
“Lessons learned from the Athletic Club Hotel Fire.” This episode is an interview with Indianapolis Health & Safety Chief, Doug Abernathy. In 1992, Doug had been on the Indianapolis Fire Department for four years and was serving as a firefighter on Engine 13. He shares a powerful story about brotherhood, love of the job and
Episode 17: Situational awareness lessons learned from a double line-of-duty death Read More »
Situational Awareness Matters Radio Show Special Episode 002 Topic: Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System Expert Panel Discussion (from Fire-Rescue International, Dallas Texas) The purpose of the SAMatters Radio show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high risk, high consequence environments. The SAMatters mission is simple… To help
Special Episode 002 | Near Miss Expert Panel Read More »
Episode 14: Interview with Dave Casey, Director of Louisiana State Fire & Emergency Training Institute on the need for realistic training. Length: 57 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
Episode 14: The need for realistic training Read More »
Recently I conducted an informal survey on my social media networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), asking: In your opinion, what is the #1 barrier to situational awareness. As expected with social media, the responses were varied and some were intended to be humorous. I would like to share a few of the responses.
Situational Awareness Survey Read More »
In the feature segment, we’ll talk about training for failure, how it happens and I’ll offer some advice on how to overcome it. I’ll also include some discussion questions you can have among your members about training and whether there may be opportunities for improvement. And we’ll share a near-miss report where a crew
Episode 13 – Training for Failure Read More »
There is a growing body of research revealing that many human’s have an irrational obsession with loss. Or, perhaps more accurately, an irrational obsession with AVOIDING loss. This phenomenon is something I have seen played out in my evaluation of many casualty incidents. Ironically, the human trait to avoid loss is the same trait that
The irrational obsession with loss Read More »
Thanks to everyone who got connected with me at the 2014 Fire Department Instructor’s Conference in Indianapolis last week. The conference and all the programs were amazing (as always). I am grateful to Bobby Halton, Diane Rothschild, Cindy Huse, Tommy Grigg, Marla Patterson and the entire Fire Engineering/PennWell team for the opportunity to contribute. The
Situational Awareness Tour Stop at FDIC Read More »
Promotional video created for Situational Awareness Matters. (Click on the crest to watch the video) CLICK HERE for more information about Academy content and how to sign up.
