Category Archives: firefighter situational awareness
Confirmation Bias Impacts Situational Awareness
The foundation of situational awareness is capturing clues and cues in your environment – what some would call “paying attention” - and then making sense of those clues and cues – what some would call “understanding” – and then making projections … Continue reading
Posted in Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, human factors, Safety, Situational awareness, size-up
Tagged cognitive bias, confirmation bias, decision making under stress, firefighter rescue, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, flashover, flawed situational awareness, incident command, information management, situational awareness
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Radio Traffic Can Improve or Destroy Situational Awareness
When it comes to first responder radio traffic I am reminded of the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You may recall that in the story Goldilocks samples three bowls of porridge. One is too hot. One is too … Continue reading
Posted in Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Communications, Complacency, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, human factors, Information overload, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Training, Tunneled Senses
Tagged decision making, dispatch, emergency management, EMT, fire, fire command, fire command training, fire training, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command, fireground command decision making, fireground commander, fireground safety, haz-mat, hazardous materials, officer safety, paramedic, patient care, police officer safety, public safety, radio communications, rescue, responder safety, safety, Situational awareness matters, tactical decision making, technical rescue
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Bravado: A Barrier to Situational Awareness
I recently sent out a message across my social media networks (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) about bravado being a barrier to situational awareness. The message, in case you missed it, read: Bravado: The purposeful ignorance of critical signs of danger … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, Emotions, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, human factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training
Tagged bravado, bravery, decision making, decision making under stress, dispatch, emergency management, EMT, fire, fire command, fire command training, fire training, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command, fireground command decision making, fireground commander, fireground safety, haz-mat, hazardous materials, line of duty death, officer safety, paramedic, patient care, police officer safety, public safety, rescue, responder safety, risk management, safety, situational awareness, Situational awareness matters, tactical decision making, technical rescue
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Situational Awareness: Think Past, Present & Future
Flawed situational awareness (SA) is one of the leading contributing factors to first responder near-miss and casualty events. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a line-of-duty death investigation report that does not implicate flawed SA, or one of … Continue reading
Culture can be a Situational Awareness Barrier
Each member of the fire department is guided by a unique system of values, beliefs, assumptions and norms. Every members also brings their own unique habits and routines. What happens when you combine the values, beliefs, assumptions, norms, habits and … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Communications, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, Emotions, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork
Tagged communications, decision making, decision making under stress, fire service leadership, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, leadership, organizational culture, safety, situational awareness
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Ignoring the Signs of Danger
A lesson on situational awareness: The tones drop for a reported residential fire. On the way, dispatch reports multiple calls, confirming a working fire. On arrival the crew sees fire blowing out the B-C corner of the single story, detached … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, Safety, Situational awareness, size-up, Teamwork, Tunneled Senses
Tagged decision making under stress, firefighter rescue, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, flashover, flawed situational awareness, incident command, information management, mayday, situational awareness
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Administrative chiefs and emergency responses
I recently received an email from a firefighter asking for my opinion as to whether or not the administrative chief officers in his department should respond to reported structure fires. My initial response was: “Well, Duh! Yes!” But then I … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, firefighter situational awareness, Incompetence, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Workload Management
Tagged fire chief, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground safety, ICS, incident command, incident management, situational awareness, strategy and tactics
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