Those are first responder situational awareness and decision making issues that relate to staffing, including under staffing, quality of staffing, quantity of staffing, response time delays, mutual aid and automatic aid.
On July 5, 2013, the Spokane Fire Department responded to a reported commercial building fire at the Mayfair Professional Building, located at 5901 North Mayfair. Within two minutes of the alarm, the first arriving company found light smoke coming from the area of the HVAC units in the side of the building. The structure was …
Episode 29: Interview with Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer Read More »
On this episode I continue the 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 how exciting… …
Episode 23: Situational Awareness lessons learned when three feet from death – Part 2 Read More »
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 »
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’s a new breed of worker lining up to be your next member: Are you ready? Like it or not, here they come… The Generation Y first responder! Are you ready? There are 80 million of them and they’re going to be your next crop of new firefighters and EMS providers. They’re a force to be …
Accountability: A critically important component to emergency scene safety when personnel operate in a hazardous environment. From the perspective of situational awareness, accountability plays several roles. The obvious role is personnel accountability facilitates the rapid deployment of rescue teams if something goes awry. Command knows the crew sizes and where they are operating at and …
