mayday

Backdraft and Mayday! – Part 1 (Episode 249)

This episode is part 1 of a 3-part interview with the incident commander from the German Township Fire Department who was in charge of a residential dwelling fire where a backdraft occurred followed by a Mayday call. Length: 67 minutes     Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If […]

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Dispatchers Role in Situational Awareness

One of the situational awareness best practices discussed during the Fifty Ways to Kill a First Responder program is the role played by the dispatcher during an emergency incident. As I have discussed this many times with first responders throughout the United States I have come to the conclusion that in some jurisdictions the dispatcher

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Situational Awareness Matters!

Complex Communications

We have many traits that make us uniquely human. Among them is our ability to engage in complex communications. We can look at black ink squiggled on a piece of bleached paper and derive meaning from those symbols.  We call that skill reading comprehension. And we can listen to and comprehend the meaning of more

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Episode126 | Interview with Birmingham Assistant Fire Chief Floyd (Buddy) Wilks, Jr.

  In this episode, I interview Birmingham Assistant Fire Chief Floyd (Buddy) Wilks, Jr. who served as the incident commander during a mayday at a residential dwelling fire. Length: 68 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 62: Review of the most popular close call interviews

    What can you learn from someone who has survived a close call? The answer is… A LOT. When I launched this show in April 2014, the purpose was, as it remains, to help first responders improve situational awareness and decision making while operating in high stress, high consequence environments. This mission has been supplemented

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Episode 55: Interview with close call survivor Jason Corthell

In this episode, Cypress Creek Lieutenant Jason Corthell shares his close call survival story where he was operating on the second floor of an exterior stairwell at an apartment building fire. The stairwell, not involved in fire at all, unexpectedly collapsed, trapping Lieutenant Corthell and District Chief Sanchez under tons of steel an concrete. A

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Episode 49: Ryan Fuller Mayday

On February 4, 2013 the Williamsport Volunteer Fire Company experienced a mayday when a firefighter fell down a set of unprotected stairs during a structure fire at a multi-story, multi-tenant occupancy. Length: 56 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk

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Episode 43: Interview with Asheville Fire Chief Scott Burnette – Part 1

On July 28, 2011, the Asheville Fire Department was forever changed by the tragic LODD of Captain Jeff Bowen. During this interview, Fire Chief Scott Burnette talks about that fateful day and how the Asheville Fire Department has changed the way they operate. This is part 1 of a 2-part interview. Length: 47 minutes  

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