The inspiration for this article comes from Situational Awareness Matters member and Fire Chief, Todd Johnson, and the members of the Woodbury Fire Department. I was invited to observe a skills-based training evaluation that was more than a year in the making and involved over 100 practice exercises. The crews were dispatched to a structure […]
Crawl, Walk, Run Theory of Skill Development Read More »
This episode marks the third anniversary of the SAMatters Radio Podcast Show. Dr. Gasaway takes the listeners for a walk down memory lane about how the SAMatters mission got started. Length: 42 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk
Episode 156 | Third Anniversary Celebration Read More »
I had an amazing conversation with a firefighter recently about situational awareness following a program and I just had to share it with you. He asked how many of the 26 fire departments represented in the room had a process in their Mayday/rapid intervention procedures for canceling a Mayday. Hearing the answer…I was stunned!
How to Cancel the Mayday Read More »
This episode is part six of a nine-part serious on dangerous mindsets that first responders can develop and I offer some advice for dealing with each. This week we talk about the Silent member. Length: 29 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of
Episode155 | Dangerous Mindsets – The Silent Read More »
Oftentimes during situational awareness programs, participants will share stories of incidents they have responded to, or incidents they have read about, or videos of incidents they have watched where the incident ended in a significant near-miss or a casualty. This happened recently during a program where a firefighter with 20+ years of experience showed
The Rational Brain and Situational Awareness Read More »
This episode is part five of a nine-part serious on dangerous mindsets that first responders can develop and I offer some advice for dealing with each. This week we talk about the Stubborn, (a.k.a. The bull-headed). Length: 26 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your
Episode 154 | Dangerous Mindsets – The Stubborn Read More »
I received an email from a firefighter who was frustrated, disappointed, and angry. He came to work for his shift and, as he always does, started his day by performing a safety check of his personal gear and his self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). When he opened the cabinet door on the apparatus he could hardly
Situational Awareness Begins With Knowing Your Equipment Read More »
This episode is part four of a nine-part serious on dangerous mindsets that first responders can develop and I offer some advice for dealing with each. This week we talk about the Superior, (a.k.a. The Boss). Length: 33 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your
Episode 153 | Dangerous Mindsets – The Superior Read More »
Shared situational awareness simply means two or more people have a commonly understood mental model – a mental image of what’s happening… [tweet this] and what is going to happen in the future. When responders arrive at the scene of an emergency at different times (which is common), there is a risk that each person
Shared Situational Awareness Read More »
This episode is part three of a nine-part serious on dangerous mindsets that first responders can develop and I offer some advice for dealing with each. This week we talk about the Specialist, (a.k.a. The Know-it-all). Length: 33 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your
Episode 152 | Dangerous Mindsets – The Specialist Read More »
