Safety Archives - Page 26 of 44 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Episode 227 | Perry Hall Interview – Part 1

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Close Call, Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Goals, Gut Feeling, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Intuition, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Over Staffing, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Physical Fitness, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Preoccupation, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Time Distortion, Training / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part one of a two-part interview with Perry Hall, a firefighter who shared his story of a horrific near-miss event and the life-changing impact it has had on him. Length: 72 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are […]

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Nine Dangerous Mindsets – Part 2: The Subordinate

3 Comments / Article, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Being a subordinate is an inherently essential skill for first responders. Borrowing a line from the movie A Few Good Men “We follow orders or people die.” This is true. However, consistent with the outcome of the movie, sometimes BECAUSE we follow orders people die. An example of this would be when a decision maker

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Episode 226 | New Carlisle FD LODD Review

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Error Creep, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Information overload, Interruptions, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Muscle Memory, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Personnel location, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Teamwork, Tunnel Vision, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

This episode is a review of the lessons learned from the August 5, 2014 structure fire incident that killed Assistant Fire Chief Jamie Middlebrook. Length: 36 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

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Nine Dangerous Mindsets – Part 1: The Starter

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Article, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

One of the human factors influencing situational awareness is the mindset of the first responder. Mindset is based on beliefs, biases and self-perception. Mindset may also be influenced by organizational culture and peer pressure. In this series I am going to explore nine potentially dangerous mindsets and share how they can impact emergency scene safety.

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Episode 225 | Chris Baker Interview – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Fatigue, Fear, Gut Feeling, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Overwhelm, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part interview with firefighter Chris Baker, sharing a near-miss event at a Chevron Richmond Refinery in California. Disclaimer: The comments shared during this interview are of the individual and do not represent the views of any company, employer or agency. Length: 46 minutes Click the YouTube icon to

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Locus of Control

1 Comment / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress / Rich Gasaway

Locus of control is a psychological principal that refers to the extent to which a person feels they are in control of the events that can affect their life, well-being or success. It is often associated with how a person views what happens to them in life and who is responsible for their successes and

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Episode 224 | Chris Baker Interview – Part 1

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Excited, Expectations, Fatigue, Fear, Gut Feeling, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Overwhelm, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 1 of a 2-part interview with firefighter Chris Baker, sharing a near-miss event at a Chevron Richmond Refinery in California. Disclaimer: The comments shared during this interview are of the individual and do not represent the views of any company, employer or agency. Length: 44 minutes Click the YouTube icon to

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Multiple Awarenesses

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

The mission of this website and my personal passion for situational awareness is to help first responders see the bad things coming in time to change the outcome. Consistent with that mission, I try to help responders understand how various aspects of the job – from training, to human factors, to command competence and everything in

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Episode 222 | Doug Abernathy Interview – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Close Call, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Error Creep, Experience, Gut Feeling, Habits, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Training, understaffing / Rich Gasaway

This episode revisits Part 2 of an interview with Indianapolis Health & Safety Chief Doug Abernathy discussing his near-miss at the Athletic Club Hotel fire on February 5, 1992 Length: 53 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational

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Interruptions Can Be a Barrier To Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Competency, Decision Making, Experience, Human Factors, Interruptions, Safety / Rich Gasaway

Like many of you, I do my best work when I am not interrupted. Whether it’s someone trying to carry on a conversation, a phone ringing or a text message, an interruption disrupts the train of thought. And when the train of thought is disrupted, situational awareness can be adversely impacted.

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