Size Up Archives - Page 13 of 17 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Episode 182 | Colorado Springs FD Interview – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Automatic Action, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Insubordination, Judgment, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 2 of an interview with three members of the Colorado Springs Fire Department discussing recruit training, using science to teach firefighting and more. Length: 50 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to […]

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Episode 181 | Colorado Springs FD Interview – Part 1

This episode is part 1 of an interview with three members of the Colorado Springs Fire Department discussing recruit training, using science to teach firefighting and more. Length: 55 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen

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Buildings are Disposable

7 Comments / Accountability, Article, Building Construction, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Buildings are disposable. People are not! This guest editorial contribution is provided by Chief John Buckman III, Director of the Indiana State Fire Training and Certification System. Chief Buckman posted this piece on Facebook and, with his permission, it is being reposted here. The message is short and powerful.

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Begin With The End In Mind

3 Comments / Article, Attention Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

One of the essential components of well-developed situational awareness is being able to accurately predict the future. This prediction should be made during the initial scene size up and then it should be updated often as the incident progresses. In this segment, the need to begin with the end in mind will be explored and

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Assumptions can be a situational awareness barrier

1 Comment / Article, Assumptions, Communications, Competency, Decision Making, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Safety, Size Up / Rich Gasaway

We make assumptions every day. Some of them are accurate. Others are not. Assumptions occur when there is an absence of complete information. Such is the case at just about every emergency scene you respond to. Let’s explore how we make assumptions.

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Episode170 | Interview with Brad Davidson

Leave a Comment / Attitude, Close Call, Communications, Decision Making, Expectations, Gut Feeling, Intuition, Judgment, Mindfulness, Perception, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Size Up / Rich Gasaway

Brad Davidson is an industrial firefighter who was conducting an inspection on a furnace when his intuition told him something was wrong. This episode chronicles how trusting his intuition may have saved his life. Length: 49 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational

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Aggressiveness and Situational Awareness

7 Comments / Article, Building Construction, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Emotions, Human Behavior, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Staffing, Stress, Teamwork, Training / Rich Gasaway

I was recently contacted by email from a Situational Awareness Matters member asking if aggressiveness and safety can co-exist at an emergency scene. My answer was “of course they can.” The two actions, being safe and being aggressive are not mutually exclusive. To think they are is to believe responders must sacrifice safety when they

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A situational awareness paradigm shift

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Attention Management, Complacency, Decision Making, Emotions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Task Saturation, Tunneled Senses, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

Paradigm: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them . Recent research conducted by Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have revealed a flaw in a long standing paradigm about fire attack. As this blog does not

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A Must-See Safety Video

2 Comments / Accountability, Article, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Incompetence, Leadership, Physical Fitness, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

I would like to recommend that you all watch this video created by the Chicago Fire Department, depicting the [clickandtweet handle=”richgasaway” hashtag=”samatters” related=”samatters” layout=”” position=””]powerful life stories of firefighters who have been injured or killed.[/clickandtweet]

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Episode 163 | Lynchburg FD House Fire Near Miss – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Close Call, Command Location, Command Support, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Gut Feeling, Judgment, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

Captain Bob Mayes, Captain John Ripley, and Deputy Chief Greg Wormser were on the first-alarm assignment to a report of a residential dwelling fire. As the incident progressed conditions changed which resulted in a significant near-miss event. This is part 2 of a two-part interview. Length: 47 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen

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