These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to crew resource management.
On this episode (Part 1 of 2) I interview with Captain John Lightly. John as served as a member of the Youngstown, Ohio Fire Department for 13 years. Youngstown FD has 8 stations and a sworn strength of 135 firefighters. John’s married and has twin daughters who are in 3rd grade. So you can imagine […]
Episode 22: Situational Awareness Lessons Learned when Three Feet From Death – Part 1 Read More »
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
Episode 18: Situational Awareness Lessons Learned in Two Minutes Read More »
“Lessons learned from the Athletic Club Hotel Fire.” This episode is an interview with Indianapolis Health & Safety Chief, Doug Abernathy. In 1992, Doug had been on the Indianapolis Fire Department for four years and was serving as a firefighter on Engine 13. He shares a powerful story about brotherhood, love of the job and
Episode 17: Situational awareness lessons learned from a double line-of-duty death Read More »
Situational Awareness Matters Radio Show Special Episode 002 Topic: Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System Expert Panel Discussion (from Fire-Rescue International, Dallas Texas) The purpose of the SAMatters Radio show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high risk, high consequence environments. The SAMatters mission is simple… To help
Special Episode 002 | Near Miss Expert Panel Read More »
Episode 16: The impact of fatigue on situational awareness Back in episode 7 I answered a listener question about the impact of fatigue on situational awareness. I promised in that episode that I would dedicate more time to this topic in an upcoming episode. So I want to explore the issue of fatigue some more.
Episode 16: The impact of fatigue on situational awareness Read More »
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
The irrational obsession with loss Read More »
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
Mission Myopia: A situational awareness barrier Read More »
I seem to be getting asked a lot lately about what the first arriving company officer should do at a working structure fire. Specifically, the debate revolves around two basic premise. Should the first arriving company officer assume a fixed command position outside the structure and coordinate the activities of incoming units? Or, should the
Working Command and Situational Awareness Read More »
I had an opportunity today to present along side Asheville Fire Chief Scott Burnette at the North Carolina Society of Fire Rescue Instructors Conference. This opportunity came as a result of another wonderful opportunity that Chief Burnette extended to me to conduct facilitated debriefings following the line-of-duty death of Captain Jeff Bowen. During the debriefing
Healing and growing from tragedy Read More »
There are probably few things I say in a classroom that raises the ire of instructors more than “You’re training your members to fail.” I understand why they wouldn’t want to hear that. No instructor wants a member to fail. Even more so, no instructor wants to be implicated for being the one responsible for
