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Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines

These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to standard operating procedures and standard operating guidelines.

Episode 191 | Interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco – Part 2

This episode is Part 2 of my interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco talking about the after-action review process used by Norfolk Fire to learn lessons from significant incidents.   Length: 44 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen           __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of […]

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Episode 190 | Interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco – Part 1

Episode 190 is Part 1 of a 2-part interview with Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief John DiBacco talking about the after-action review process used by Norfolk Fire to learn lessons from significant incidents.   Length: 36 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen         __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of

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Confronting a Boss With Flawed Situational Awareness

  I recently read a post on social media where a firefighter said at an incident scene that he doesn’t worry about his situational awareness. That’s what he has an officer for. Further, he didn’t worry about having situational awareness about the larger incident scene, that’s what he has an incident commander for. I could

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Situational Awareness Matters!

Complex Communications

We have many traits that make us uniquely human. Among them is our ability to engage in complex communications. We can look at black ink squiggled on a piece of bleached paper and derive meaning from those symbols.  We call that skill reading comprehension. And we can listen to and comprehend the meaning of more

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Episode 179 | Coordinated Actions

This episode explores how coordinated actions can improve situational awareness. Length: 29 minutes Click the YouTube icon to listen           _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check out the Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. CLICK HERE for details, enrollment

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Buildings are Disposable

Buildings are disposable. People are not! This guest editorial contribution is provided by Chief John Buckman III, Director of the Indiana State Fire Training and Certification System. Chief Buckman posted this piece on Facebook and, with his permission, it is being reposted here. The message is short and powerful.

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Situational Awareness Matters!

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 got to thinking about it more. How and when administrative chief officers respond to fires

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A Must-See Safety Video

I would like to recommend that you all watch this video created by the Chicago Fire Department, depicting the [clickandtweet handle=”richgasaway” hashtag=”samatters” related=”samatters” layout=”” position=””]powerful life stories of firefighters who have been injured or killed.[/clickandtweet]

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Situational Awareness Matters!

360° Size Up

Situational awareness starts with capturing clues and cues in your environment[/clickandtweet]  It’s really quite a simple premise. To capture clues and cues requires seeing or hearing them. At a structure fire, the visual clues and cues occupy a finite environment- the building and the space around the building. I am nothing short of astounded by the

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