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SAMatters Radio episodes
- SAM 110 | Live Events Q&A
This Q&A session addresses three questions from recent live situational awareness programs. Much of the inspiration for the blog posts come from participant questions but this may be the first podcast episode dedicated to questions asked during live events. The three questions we address include:
- What can I do to improve my intuition?
- What can I do as first responders to combat information overload?
- How can I tell when my perception of reality is flawed?
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
52 min - SAM 109 | The Perfect Storm
The phrase "Perfect Storm" is used to describe a combination of unpredictable circumstances that cause drastic outcomes. The term is also used to describe circumstances that occur so infrequently that they are thought to be unpredictable and thus, perhaps, unpreventable. The term can also sometimes be used to describe the worst-case scenario of a potential, not yet experienced, event.
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
40 min - SAM 108 | Working Command and Situational Awareness
I get asked a lot of questions about what the first arriving company officer should do at a working structure fire. Specifically, the debate revolves around two basic premise. Should the first arriving company officer assume a fixed command position outside the structure and coordinate the activities of incoming units? Or, should the first arriving company officer assume a "working command" or "mobile command" position and engage in the firefight with their crew? This episode looks to answer that question and more.
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Photo Credit
John M. Buckman III
Wildfire Studios
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
32 min - SAM 107 | Interview with Hagerstown Fire Chief Steve Lohr
In this interview with Chief Lohr, we discuss how he is working to change a culture and to improve safety for the members of the Hagerstown Fire Department. Listen in as he shares important messages about safety complacency, culture, situational awareness, politics and succession planning.
This episode will also be available a video on the SAMattersTV YouTube. Youtube.com/SAMattersTV
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Our Guest
Chief Steve Lohr
Hagerstown Fire Department
301-790-2476
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
1 hr 4 min - SAM 106 | Sensory conflict can impact situational awareness
The process by which situational awareness is formed begins withusing your five senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting andsmelling) to gather information from your environment. That mayarguably be the easiest part of the situational awarenessdevelopmental process so long as you are "paying attention" to yourenvironment. Once the senses gather information, it converts itinto an electrical code that crackles its way down neural pathwaysto various destinations.
At some point, the inputs from the senses must be combined,compared and contrasted to help achieve a coherent understanding ofwhat is happening. This "understanding" is the second step alongthe way to developing situational awareness. But it's not alwayseasy to understand the meaning of information, especially whenthere is conflict among the inputs.
Our sponsor:
Midwest FireMidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
31 min - SAM 105 | Realistic live fire training challenges and opportunities
Interview questions discussed included:
- While conducting live burn evolutions fire instructors are bound by NFPA 1403 for safety reasons. And while fire instructors do not want to jeopardize the safety of the students (or fellow instructors), how can we incorporate fire dynamics demonstrations to show students what to expect, versus just lecturing students about dynamics?
- How can fire dynamics be taught beyond the classroom?
- Are lectures on fire dynamics enough to prepare firefighters?
- During live burns firefighters are taught how to fight fires that consist of a few wooden pallets and some straw. Then, once the class is over these firefighters are expected to respond to fires that react very different than what they saw during training burns. Do you feel that instructors may be setting students up for failure on real firegrounds if they are not able to demonstrate the behaviors of real fires.
- How can tactics be taught when training fires are not the same a real fires?
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
56 min - SAM 104 | Eric Dreiman – Flashover Survival Story – Part 2
On November 14, 2014, Indianapolis Captain (then Lieutenant) Eric Dreiman was assigned on Ladder 19. His station was dispatched at 1159 hours to a reported residential dwelling fire on Holly Avenue, about a half mile from the station.
On arrival the crew had heavy fire showing on the rear of the house and one occupant who had escaped reporting that her son was still inside. Dreiman, along with Firefighter Brian Kincaid made entry to conduct a primary search. Engine 19 was stretching an attack line and would soon follow… or so they thought.
The engine experienced a short delay in getting the line charged. Dreiman and Kincaid advanced into the house on the search. There was a sudden change in conditions and Dreiman made the decision to retreat.
As the approached the front door, the fire flashed over. Kincaid was exiting on to the front porch. Dreiman was behind Kincaid and was exposed to extreme fire conditions that burned his gear and burned him. Upon exiting, their gear was on fire and they had to be extinguished by the engine crew.
Listen to the amazing near-miss story where, if their decision to exit was delayed by only a few seconds, it would have likely resulted in a double line-of-duty death.
Observations and lessons learned included:
- Avoiding the “routine” call mindset.
- Wear all your gear properly.
- Train on fire behavior.
- Learn how to read smoke.
- Participate in flashover training.
- Don’t take the engine line advancement for granted.
- Realize when civilian lives are no longer savable.
- Understand you can suffer from auditory exclusion while operating in a high-stress environment.
- Time distortion can impact your awareness.
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Guest Contact Information
Cell: 317-793-1838
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
47 min - SAM 103 | Eric Dreiman – Flashover Survival Story – Part 1
On November 14, 2014, Indianapolis Captain (then Lieutenant) Eric Dreiman was assigned on Ladder 19. His station was dispatched at 1159 hours to a reported residential dwelling fire on Holly Avenue, about a half mile from the station.
On arrival the crew had heavy fire showing on the rear of the house and one occupant who had escaped reporting that her son was still inside. Dreiman, along with Firefighter Brian Kincaid made entry to conduct a primary search. Engine 19 was stretching an attack line and would soon follow… or so they thought.
The engine experienced a short delay in getting the line charged. Dreiman and Kincaid advanced into the house on the search. There was a sudden change in conditions and Dreiman made the decision to retreat.
As the approached the front door, the fire flashed over. Kincaid was exiting on to the front porch. Dreiman was behind Kincaid and was exposed to extreme fire conditions that burned his gear and burned him. Upon exiting, their gear was on fire and they had to be extinguished by the engine crew.
Listen to the amazing near-miss story where, if their decision to exit was delayed by only a few seconds, it would have likely resulted in a double line-of-duty death.
Observations and lessons learned included:
- Avoiding the “routine” call mindset.
- Wear all your gear properly.
- Train on fire behavior.
- Learn how to read smoke.
- Participate in flashover training.
- Don’t take the engine line advancement for granted.
- Realize when civilian lives are no longer savable.
- Understand you can suffer from auditory exclusion while operating in a high-stress environment.
- Time distortion can impact your awareness.
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Guest Contact Information
Cell: 317-793-1838
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
44 min - SAM 102 | Staffing can impact situational awareness
In my efforts to research and share what causes issues with situational awareness I have uncovered over 100… what I call… Barriers. These barriers impact a person’s ability to develop and maintain situational awareness.
In this episode I am going to explore the challenges of staffing as a barrier to situational awareness by sharing excerpts of interviews I conducted with expert-level fireground commanders during my doctoral research.
If you are interested in reading the complete research study, the book (Fireground Command Decision Making: Understanding the barriers challenging command situation awareness) is available through the SAMatters.com store.
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
35 min - SAM 101 | Interview with Near Miss Survivors from Sioux Falls Fire Department
Captain Ryan Cox, Fire Apparatus Operator Tom Reel, Firefighter Jay McManigal and Firefighter John Alvey share the details of a close call during a routine truck check when Ladder 7 came into contact with a 33 kV transmission line on January 2, 2016.
If circumstances were just slightly different, this incident could have resulted in multiple firefighter fatalities.
Our sponsor:
Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com
Intro music
Safety Dance (1982)
Men Without Hats
GMC - Virgin Records
Guest Contact Information
Tom Reel, Fire Apparatus Operator
Sioux Falls Fire Department
Situational Awareness Matters! website
www.SAMatters.com
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Contact Rich Gasaway
www.RichGasaway.com
612-548-4424
1 hr 12 min
About SAMatters Radio
From the publisher's feed
The mission of the Situational Awareness Matters! Radio Show is to help you see the bad things coming... in time to avoid bad outcomes by improving your understanding of human factors, situational…
awareness and decision making under stress. Listen and learn from hundreds of incredible interviews with first responders who survived near-miss events.