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Distractions and Interruptions

These are first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to distractions and interruptions.

Situational Awareness and Decision Making Tips for Training

I recently received an email from a SAMatters community member asking for tips to improve size-up, situational awareness and decision making while training in a flashover simulator. It was a great question (thank you Captain Scott Byers from the Tracy Fire Department)! I offered Scott a number of ideas and thought it would be good […]

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Sensory Conflict

The process by which situational awareness is formed begins with using your five senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling) to gather information from your environment. That may arguably be the easiest part of the situational awareness developmental process so long as you are “paying attention” to your environment. Once the senses gather information, it

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Radio Discipline (Episode 272)

  This episode discusses the importance of radio discipline in developing and maintaining situational awareness. Length: 19 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 Situational Awareness Matters

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Situational Intelligence – The New Buzz Word

I am just back from attending a fire conference where the vendors of information management software have coined a new buzzword to sell their wares – “situational intelligence.” A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a software vendor who claimed his software “created” situational awareness. I found this claim both annoying and

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Firefighter Through the Floor – The Matt Marlow Story (Episode 266)

In this interview, Matt Marlow shares how his late arrival on a structure fire led to a complacent mindset and caused him to fall through the floor at a residential structure fire. Length: 78 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding

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Noise Impacts Situational Awareness

Some time ago I had the honor of visiting and receiving a tour of the Hong Kong Fire Department training center. Many of the props used there are similar to what I have seen in the United States. However, there was one very noticeable difference in the maze they use to train firefighters. Noise! They

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Nine considerations when evaluating incident command software

As you attend conferences that have vendor display areas, pay attention to how many incident management software vendors claim to have programs that can “develop situational awareness” in first responders. This claim is often founded on the belief that as the software is able to capture, assemble and display layers and layers of data that,

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Backdraft and Mayday! – Part 3 (Episode 251)

This episode is part 3 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: 62 minutes         Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO    

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Backdraft and Mayday! – Part 2 (Episode 250)

This episode is part 2 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: 40 minutes     Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ If

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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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