In this segment of the Recipe From Hell’s Kitchen series, I share the second step of the recipe – consequence. [tweet this] Rather, the lack of consequence and the impact this may have on firefighter situational awareness. One of the outcomes you might expect when there is incompetent behavior is an injury – a consequence. …
I am blessed. My work allows me to uncover many lessons from human behavior and cognitive neuroscience research that benefit the situational awareness of first responders. My 30+ years in fire and EMS positions me well to understand how those lessons can improve our safety. It has truly become my passion and my calling. [This …
Is there a role for humor while training first responders on critical, life-saving, skills?[tweet this] The flight attendant begins dolling out the obligatory, in fact, federally mandated, pre-flight safety instructions. If you’re a frequent flyer, your situational awareness is probably pretty low. You know the routine and it’s boring. If you’re an infrequent flyer, the …
Welcome to the second article in the four-part We Must Stop The Insanity situational awareness series. In Part 1, posted October 27, I talked about flawed size-ups. In this segment, I’m going to discuss why firefighters fail to be defensive when the fire conditions indicate offensive operations are inappropriate.
The training practices used in many communities are setting up emergency response personnel for failure and flawed situational awareness. The sad part is most don’t even realize they’re doing it. When casualties occur, so do investigations. The investigations result in recommendations for how to prevent future casualty events. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and …
I read with great interest (and concern) an article recently published about how the San Francisco Fire Department is being fined $21,000 by state investigators for violations to safety laws that led to the deaths of two firefighters on June 2. My concern for this action is not an attempt, in any way, to diminish …
Penalties and Discipline Will Not Improve Safety Read More »
I received the following feedback to a recent Situational Awareness Newsletter. I thought I’d share it and use it as an introduction to this article. Here’s what he had to say: __________ I forwarded your newsletter to every one of my email contacts. The newsletter was especially appropriate for some of the people on my mailing list …
Episode 331 Throughout his 43-year career, retired fire chief Jim Arie had experienced multiple near-miss events. He’ll discuss a few of them but none were as sobering as the one that occurred in March 2020, when Jim and his wife were held-up at gunpoint in their driveway and their car was stolen. CLICK HERE for …
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 »
On June 2, 2011, the San Francisco Fire Department suffered the tragic loss of 2 firefighters at 133 Berkeley Way. The department conducted an internal review of the incident and issued a 156-page report on their findings. Many of the lessons relate to situational awareness and it is from that perspective that I would like …
Five Situational Awareness Lessons from SFFD LODD Read More »
