Situational awareness

These are articles related to situational awareness.

Responders Overcome by Carbon Monoxide – The Mukilteo Fire Story – Part 1 (Episode 308)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Close Call, Communications, Competency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Human Error, Human Factors, Illness, Judgment, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Vigilance /

This interview is part 1 of a 2-part interview with three members of the Mukilteo Fire Department who were overcome by carbon monoxide on an EMS call. Length: 43 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO         __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and […]

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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 /

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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The Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System – Part 2 (Episode 306)

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 /

Today’s episode is Part 2 of my 2-part interview with John Russ, Program Director for the IAFC Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System. Length: 45 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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Commanders in Turnout Gear

18 Comments / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness /

I recently read, with great interest, a very long thread on Facebook about whether or not an incident commander should wear turnout gear at a fire scene. As my focus and passion is improving first responder situational awareness, I would like to address this issue from that perspective. The feedback on Facebook was, as expected,

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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 /

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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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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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 /

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 /

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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The Normalization of Deviance

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

      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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Three types of stress

1 Comment / Article, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness /

In this article, we discuss three types of stress: Acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress. First responders can, and often do, experience all three. Stress can impact firefighter situational awareness and, equally concerning, stress can have devastating long-term impacts. As I was writing this article I recalled various times during my thirty years

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