SAMatters Radio

On this episode I had the opportunity to tour the Seattle Fire Department training facility and I sat down and talked with Phil Jose, the training chief for the Seattle Fire Department. During the interview, Chief Jose shared some of the things he is focused on to improve the situational awareness and  decision making  abilities of Seattle firefighters including:   1. Conducting Post Incident Anal...

On this episode I interview Jack Sullivan, Director of Training for the Responder Safety Institute. The mission of the Institute is to reduce highway incidents involving first responders and to minimize the impact of responders who are involved in these incidents.   Our discussion was recorded at the National Volunteer Fire Council Summit in Myrtle Beach where Jack was presenting on highway incide...

On this episode we walk with Captain John Wright from the Flower Mound (Texas) Fire Department. Captain Wright survived an extremely close call while operating as an interior search crew at a residential dwelling fire.   On June 17, 2011 the Flower Mound Fire Department along with several mutual aid companies responded to a residential structure fire.  During the incident, Captain Wright and Firef...

  In episode 2, I spoke a little bit about complacency. The feedback was awesome, thank you everyone for that.   1. In this episode I will continue on that topic and share a how a false alarm mindset can lead to complacency.   2. In the near-miss report we will share an incident where complacency caused a firefighter to fall through a weakened floor at a residential dwelling fire.   3. And in the...

  On this episode we celebrate the International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week. My guest is Ryan Pennington,  webmaster  at Views from the Jumpseat and host of Jumpseat Radio. We are talking about the International Fire and EMS Safety and Health Week and its theme: Train like you fight!   INFORMATION   If you are interested in attending a live event, you can check out the Situational Awareness M...

Hello and welcome to episode 7 of the Situational Awareness Matters radio show. I’m your host, Rich Gasaway. The purpose of this show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high stress, high consequence environments. Our mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to prevent bad outcomes.     I am broadcasting to you toda...

  On this episode we’ll talk 1. Briefly about the myth of multitasking 2. We’ll listen to an interview I recorded with a wildland firefighting safety officer with 40 years of experience on the line. 1. Developing the mindset of a Just Culture in the wildland firefighting community. 2. Why a culture of compliance won’t work. 3. How age brought wisdom and helped Wayne realize the need for instant gr...

  On this episode we’ll talk about… 1. The role of emotions in decision making. 2. I’ll share a report about a   first responder who had a near-miss with a chain saw. 3. And we’ll talk about why so few first responders and industrial workers are being taught about situational awareness.   FEATURE TOPIC How you decide to do something… or not do something is a complex process that involves multiple...

  On this episode we’ll talk about…     1. The importance of completing a 360 degree size-up.     2. We’ll share a near-miss event where a combination of inexperience, freelancing, and assumptions led to a loss of accountability.     3. And we’ll address a community member’s question about how to develop expert knowledge in younger officers who are seeing less fires.     FEATURE TOPIC     Situatio...

  On this episode we’ll talk about…   1. Positive and negative clues and cues that form situational awareness.   2. We will share a near-miss event where a first responder was nearly run over by a fire department command vehicle.   3. And we will address a dilemma where a listener shares his concern about his department training officer and the seemingly lack of interest in conducting mayday and r...

  On this episode we’ll talk about…   1. Habits, routines and complacency.   2. We will look at a near-miss event where tunnel vision and complacency may have flawed situational awareness.   3. And we will address a question from an SAMatters community member about how to make mayday training more realistic.   FEATURE TOPIC   We all know we have habits. Some of them are good habits. And some of th...

Welcome to the first episode of the Situational Awareness Matters! Radio show.   And since this is the first episode I thought it would be appropriate to share with you how the back story of how Situational Awareness Matters got started.   You will also be provided with a good working definition for situational awareness and explanation as to why it is so darn important to the process of making go...