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firefighter situational awareness

Episode 52: Interview with Chief Jerry Streich

In this episode I interview Andover (MN) Fire Chief Jerry Streich on the value of having a safety officer assigned during training evolutions. Chief Streich took part in a pilot program for the League of Minnesota Cities (his department’s insurance provided) in an effort to reduce training-related injuries.   Length: 34 minutes click the YouTube […]

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Episode 18: Situational Awareness Lessons Learned in Two Minutes

This close call survival story is an interview with Aurora Fire Lieutenant Sean Dolan sharing amazing lessons from the house fire where he was caught in a flashover and sustained second and third-degree burns. Sean is very candid in sharing the details of what happened and how close he came to death. Length: 63 minutes

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house fire

The irrational obsession with loss

There is a growing body of research revealing that many human’s have an irrational obsession with loss. Or, perhaps more accurately, an irrational obsession with AVOIDING loss. This phenomenon is something I have seen played out in my evaluation of many casualty incidents. Ironically, the human trait to avoid loss is the same trait that

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Situational Awareness Tour Stop at FDIC

Thanks to everyone who got connected with me at the 2014 Fire Department Instructor’s Conference in Indianapolis last week. The conference and all the programs were amazing (as always). I am grateful to Bobby Halton, Diane Rothschild, Cindy Huse, Tommy Grigg, Marla Patterson and the entire Fire Engineering/PennWell team for the opportunity to contribute. The

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SAFER Book Testimonial

Thank you to Chris Peak for sharing the following review of Situational Awareness for Emergency Response book. Dear Dr. (Chief) Gasaway, I am not an expert in book reviews or any “science”. That is something I think should be mentioned. I am a Fire Fighter and Emergency responder second to a husband and a father.

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Mission Myopia: A situational awareness barrier

Every emergency scene operation should begin with determining the mission (sometimes called strategy) and setting task-level goals (sometimes called tactics). Strategy and tactics establish what is to be done and how it is to be done. For example, at a structure fire, arriving responders are trained to conduct search and rescue operations and to extinguish

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Tacit knowledge and situational awareness

While conducting research on how decisions are made during high consequence events I came across a term I’d never heard before – “tacit knowledge.” Once I learned what it was it quickly became evident that I possessed it… and I didn’t know it. In fact, every first responder who has developed expert-level knowledge and skills

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