Recently I was having a conversation with a fire commander who shared the following experience. He stopped by one of the stations for a visit and came upon a group of firefighters huddled around a computer screen watching videos. Relax. This is not a lecture on watching inappropriate videos on fire department computers. In fact, […]
How Could They Be So Stupid? Read More »
I received the following feedback to a recent Situational Awareness Newsletter. I thought I’d share it and use it as an introduction to this article. Here’s what he had to say: __________ I forwarded your newsletter to every one of my email contacts. The newsletter was especially appropriate for some of the people on my mailing list
Will Denial Make the Problem Better or Worse? Read More »
The fire service is struggling with recruiting and retention. It’s also challenged by a mental health crisis and a growing apathy within the profession. The good news is, we have the power to fix it. Working in a team environment provides job satisfaction, psychological safety, and a feeling of community. Fire service leaders have
Forging Your Team – The Johnny Torgeson Story – 408 Read More »
Captain Eric Wappel shares a tale of complacency and how he faced it head-on with his department. On January 3, 2022, the North Judson – Wayne Township Fire Department was dispatched for the second time to the same residence for a “furnace smoking.” Captain Eric Wappel wasn’t available for the first response, but
Complacency: A Lesson Worth Sharing – The Eric Wappel Story – 390 Read More »
Accountability: A critically important component of emergency scene safety when personnel operates in a hazardous environment. From the perspective of situational awareness, accountability plays several roles. The obvious role is personnel accountability facilitates the rapid deployment of rescue teams if something goes awry. Command knows the crew sizes and where they are operating and can
Tracking of Personnel Read More »
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
Physical Condition Assessments Improve Situational Awareness Read More »
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
Time to Task Completion is Critical for Situational Awareness Read More »
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
The Normalization of Deviance Read More »
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
Understaffing Impacts Situational Awareness Read More »
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
The Overconfident Incompetent Read More »
