Firefighter Situational Awareness Archives - Page 6 of 24

The Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System – Part 1 (Episode 305)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Close Call, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Line of Duty Death, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Today’s episode is Part 1 of my 2-part interview with John Russ, Program Director for the IAFC Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System. Length: 48 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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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 / Rich Gasaway

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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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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Time to Task Completion is Critical for Situational Awareness

3 Comments / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

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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The Midwest Fire Story – Brett Jensen Interview (Episode 299)

Leave a Comment / Automation, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Equipment, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mission, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Technology / Rich Gasaway

This episode is an interview with Midwest Fire Vice President and General Manager Brett Jensen, discussing the Midwest Fire way of doing business. Length: 58 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

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Situational Awareness: Think Past, Present & Future

Leave a Comment / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Mental Models, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up / Rich Gasaway

Flawed situational awareness (SA) is one of the leading contributing factors to first responder near-miss and casualty events. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a line-of-duty death investigation report that does not implicate flawed SA, or one of the barriers that flaw SA, as contributing to the tragedy. As often as flawed SA

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Understaffing Impacts Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Stress, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

Understaffing can have a big impact on first responder safety. We all know that. But it can also have a huge impact on first responder situational awareness… more than I ever imagined. I have experienced understaffing issues many times throughout my career but I never gave much thought to how my situational awareness was being

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The Overconfident Incompetent

4 Comments / Article, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Training / Rich Gasaway

There are four levels of progression a person goes through in the development of competence. The pathway begins with a complete unawareness of how little a person knows and progresses to a complete unawareness of how much a person knows. There is a dangerous cognitive phenomenon that can occur along this continuum known as the

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Tired Brains (fatigue) and Situational Awareness

4 Comments / Article, Attention Management, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Fatigue, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress / Rich Gasaway

I get asked often about the role of fatigue in situational awareness. Sometimes the question is based on general curiosity. Sometimes the inquiry is a result of someone seeking support for (or against) an extended work schedule. I sure don’t want to get caught in the middle of that debate but the question is a

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Preview of the AskRail® App (Episode 290)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Automation, Benchmarks, Checklists, Command Support, Communications, Decision Making, Equipment, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Mission, Personnel location, Radios, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Teamwork, Technology, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we interview Retired Fire Chief Charles Warner as he explains the features and benefits of the free AskRail® mobile app. 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 making to a higher

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