SAMatters Radio

On Saturday, September 13, 2014, the Brooklyn Park Fire Department was dispatched to a medical call that had the potential to be catastrophic for the members of their department, their EMS transport provider and their police department.

The call was for a person having a stroke. As the crew arrived and made entry through the front door of the house there was a man on the floor having a seizure. The two police officers on the scene were attending to the individual. One of the firefighters on the scene, Jeff St. Martin, noticed a mess of exhaust and heard what sounded like a motor running. His quick actions prevented a catastrophic outcome.

Some takeaways from the interview include:

1.How complacency can creep into our mindset that we are responding to “just another medical call.”

2.How strong situational awareness can alert us when the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit… and things don’t make sense.

3.How intuition, when followed, can compel action that that can be lifesaving, even when you may not know why you are taking the action at the moment.

4.How a CO monitor carried by first-arriving medical personnel (and perhaps police officers) can alert responders to the potential of highly lethal CO levels.

Thank you to our sponsors:

Midwest Fire: MidwestFire.com Branding Iron Marketing: BrandingIron.com

SAMatters blog article referenced in the podcast

When the Puzzle Pieces Don’t Fit

http://www.samatters.com/when-the-puzzle-pieces-dont-fit/

Guest Contact Information Fire Chief Ken Prillaman

Brooklyn Park Fire Department

[email protected]

763-493-8020

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424

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 a Type 5 construction, two-story structure with a basement. The fire progressed quickly, nearly trapping crews on the first floor and in the basement.

Some takeaways from the interview include:

1. How rapidly changing fire conditions can unexpectedly over run crews.

2. You’re hear what you can learn when the fire does not behavior as expected (i.e., the puzzle pieces don’t fit).

3. You can become normalized to your environment and may not see the severity of the conditions.

4. How volumes of radio traffic on a single tactical channel can impact scene safety if at-risk crews cannot communicate via radio.

5. Time distortion impacted perception of speed of the incident.

6. How Spokane Fire is using the skills of a psychologist to help develop emotional intelligence, build incident scene situational awareness, and recover from traumatic incidents.

Show notes at: www.SAMatters.com/29/

Thank you to our sponsors:

Midwest Fire: MidwestFire.com Branding Iron Marketing: BrandingIron.com

Culture and Situational Awareness (article referenced in the podcast)http://www.samatters.com/culture-and-situational-awareness/

Guest Contact Information Assistant Chief Brian Schaeffer Spokane Fire Department [email protected]

Situational Awareness Matters! websitewww.SAMatters.com

On-Line Academyhttp://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424

This episode is an interview with Technology Guru Darrell O’Donnell. I met Darrell through my social media channels. Darrell is located in Ottawa, Ontario and runs a very successful consulting and coaching business where he bridges the knowledge gap between the technology creators and innovators and the front end users of that technology – us… the first responder community. As you can imagine, this is no easy task.

Darrell has a special passion for technology that helps first responders develop, maintain and improve situational awareness by providing rapid access to critical information that can aid in decision making.

We recorded this interview in Darrell’s home in Ottawa where he invited me to join his wife Nancy, his daughter Haley and his son Connor for dinner. Coincidentally, it was Connor’s 15th birthday so I got to be part of that celebration, which was really cool. I was in town working on a project that brought 40 researchers and practitioners together from around the world to develop an international curriculum for compartment fire behavior training. It was an awesome opportunity to share and learn with some amazingly smart and talented fire service leaders. I was honored to be selected to develop a situational awareness and decision making component for the curriculum. This will be, to my knowledge, the first international curriculum that incorporates a full-day of decision making and situational awareness training.

The interview was recorded on Sunday, October 19. By the time this podcast airs, listeners will know, yesterday, October 22nd, a man shot and killed a soldier here in Ottawa. This happened across the street from our hotel. For those who may be interested, I will post some pictures in the show notes that I took from the balcony moments following the shooting. We live in a world that has many challenges. Please, do everything you can to ensure your situational awareness is strong and remain vigilant on, and off the job.

Guest contact information:

Darrell O'Donnell, P.Eng.

Founder & Principal Coach

Technology In OPS

p: +613.627.2454 x700

1.888.978.8337 x 700 (toll free)

[email protected]

twitter: @darrello

Thank you to our Sponsors:

Midwest Fire: www.MidwestFire.com

Branding Iron: www.BrandingIron.com

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

On-Line Academy

http://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424

On this episode I interview Jeff Dill from the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance and Les Karpluk, retired fire chief and owner of Genesis 2020 Solutions, a leadership teaching and consulting firm located in Prince Albert Saskatchewan. During the interview we:

1. Share advice about how to prepare for our climb down the ladder of success.

2. Talk about how to maintain your identity and find your new passion and purpose on retirement.

3. Discuss how firefighters can suffer from loss of identity as they retire and go from “Hero to Zero” all in one day.

4.Jeff talks about the 531 reported firefighter suicides, including the 120 that have been retirees.

5. We offer advice on how to find passion and purpose after retirement.

Whether you're new in the fire service or have been serving for many years, this episode will help you think about and prepare for that day... the day you leave the fire service.

Thank you to our sponsors:

Midwest Fire: www.MidwestFire.com

Branding Iron: www.BrandingIron.com

SHOW NOTES AT: www.SAMatters.com/27

For more show notes and pictures, visit: www.SAMatters.com/26/

On this episode I interview Fire Chief Gord Schreiner from the Comox Fire Department, located on beautiful Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Chief Schreiner holds the distinction of being one of the most impressive fire service thought leaders I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet.

Gord Schreiner started in the fire service in 1975 and is the full-time Fire Chief in Comox, BC where he also manages the Comox Fire Training Centre. The Comox Fire Training Centre hosts about 500 students per year and consists of four training buildings that are full of very creative and innovative training props.

Chief Schreiner is also a structural protection specialist (sprinklers) with the Office of the Fire Commissioner and worked at the 2010 Olympics as a venue commander. He also serves as the Educational Chair for the Fire Chiefs Association of British Columbia.

In 2010 Chief Schreiner was named the Canadian Career Fire Chief of the year and was also presented the Justice Institute of BC, Award of Excellence. He has a diploma in Fire Service Leadership and has traveled both nationally and internationally delivering fire service training.

In 2013 he delivered fire service training in seven different provinces. He also writes for Firefighting in Canada. He is very passionate about the fire service and believes in paying it forward!

On this episode you’ll learn about:

1.The StopBad initiative that’s sweeping its way across Canada, thanks to the one-man crusade being mounted by Chief Schreiner.

2.Innovative training ideas being used by Comox Fire Training Center – including heating up their rescue dummies in a sauna to give them a thermal footprint and how they designed their training center with heated doors to allow the thermal imagers to reveal a hot door.

3.How they’re using “Call signs for life” and why that may revolutionize how accountability is being done.

4.How they use the acronym TAP (Team, Air and Position) during accountability reports.

5.How they use the SAVE acronym during size up (Search/Rescue, Attack, Vent and Exposures)

6.How the four C’s of communications and improve situational awareness (Connect, Convey, Clarify and Confirm)

Our Sponsor Midwest Fire www.Midwestfire.com

Our Guest

Fire Chief Gord Schreiner [email protected]

Situational Awareness Matters!

www.SAMatters.com

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Close Call Survivor Website

www.CloseCallSurvivor.com

On this episode, I interview Firefighter John Dantuono of the Lakeside (New York) Fire Department. Lakeside is located west of Syracuse. The all-volunteer fire department serves a population of about 15,000. Listen in as John discusses how he responded to a mutual aid residential dwelling fire and fell through a weakened floor. As he notes, the only thing that kept him from falling all the way through was his SCBA.

The house that was on fire was a vacant, dilapidated structure with a fire on the second floor. John was part of a crew that was looking for fire extension on the second floor of this large farm-style house. While on the second floor, John separated from his partner – by his estimates – approximately 20 feet or so, and entered a room where the floor was weakened – not from fire, but from rot. With no warning, John fell through the floor and was caught by his SCBA bottle. This resulted in a Mayday and John’s successful rescue. During this interview, John will share some valuable lessons learned, including:

1.The importance of not being complacent and letting your guard down. Simply because you are in an environment that does not contain a lot of smoke and fire, doesn’t mean you are not in danger.

2.John recalls hearing someone announce the structure was in poor condition and the floors had been compromised – yet he still fell through a weakened spot.

3.At the time, the department did not have a mayday policy and firefighters were not trained to a standardized mayday procedure.

4.Typically a Rapid Intervention Team is identified by the dispatcher at the start of the call. John does not recall a specific department or company being names RIT for this incident, even though there were over 40 firefighters on the scene.

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

On-Line Academy

http://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Close Call Survivor Website

www.CloseCallSurvivor.com

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424

On this episode, I interview Firefighter Richard Marcus of the New Hartford Volunteer Fire Department in Connecticut. On May 5, 2006, Firefighter Marcus was in the officer’s seat of New Hartford Engine 1 responding to a report of a fire on the roadside. While in route, they were cancelled and a discussion in the cab caused the driver to become momentarily distracted. For the brief moment that he had his eyes off the roadway, the engine drifted of the right side of the road. While the driver attempted to correct and recover, the engine veered out of control and struck a tree on the officer’s side of the engine. As a result, Firefighter Marcus suffered multiple injuries that included a spinal fracture and bilateral knee injuries. All firefighters riding in the engine were wearing seat belts. However the engine was older and was only equipped with lap belts, not shoulder belts.

Listen in as Firefighter Marcus shares this incredible story of how this incident impacted his life. Lessons learned include:

1.The adoption of commercial driver’s license (or Q-endorsements in Connecticut) for drivers.

2.The implementation of a sterile cockpit policy (adopted from the airline industry). This is a topic I speak about in the SAMatters Online Academy and during the live Fifty Ways to Kill a First Responder program. I will talk about this more in an upcoming podcast.

3.Changes the department made in vehicle safety following the incident.

4.The establishment of a driver’s training program with criteria to accomplishment.

5.Richard shares how the accident changed how he was treated in his department.

6.The challenges Richard has seen in his efforts to get his department to develop SOGs and to implement best practices.

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

On-Line Academy

http://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Close Call Survivor Website

www.CloseCallSurvivor.com

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424

On this episode I continue my 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… and hectic John’s life is. I really appreciate him sitting down with me and sharing his close call survivor story where he almost died as a result of being caught in a flashover. For reasons that will become obvious during the interview, I title this episode “3 feet from death” and dedicate to all the firefighters who’ve been caught in a flashover and did not live to tell their story.

In this two-part story, you will learn:

1.How John conducted his size up and made a determination, based on clues and cues that formed his situational awareness, that there was a high probability the house was occupied.

2.How the flashover occurred within two minutes of entry – a recurring theme I see at flashover casualty incidents.

3.How communications challenges influenced understanding among crew members.

4.How John experienced TachyPsychia – or a slowing down of time when the flashover occurred.

5.Listen to John describe how he felt intuition – in the form of a sick feeling in his gut – and a feeling that someone had punched him in the stomach.

6.John will also talk about self-speak – the neurological phenomenon where we talk to ourselves during high consequence situations – only John doesn’t call it self-speak. I’ll let him explain.

7.How John’s entry the first two times were under the premise of assuming the risk of being a firefighter. Yet he admits his entry the third time – he was creating risk… not assuming it.

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

On-Line Academy

http://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Close Call Survivor Website

www.CloseCallSurvivor.com

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424

This episode is Part 1 of a 2-part 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… and hectic John’s life is. I really appreciate him sitting down with me and sharing his close call survivor story where he almost died as a result of being caught in a flashover. For reasons that will become obvious during the interview, I title this episode “3 feet from death” and dedicate to all the firefighters who’ve been caught in a flashover and did not live to tell their story.

In this two-part story, you will learn:

1.How John conducted his size up and made a determination, based on clues and cues that formed his situational awareness, that there was a high probability the house was occupied.

2.How the flashover occurred within two minutes of entry – a recurring theme I see at flashover casualty incidents.

3.How communications challenges influenced understanding among crew members.

4.How John experienced TachyPsychia – or a slowing down of time when the flashover occurred.

5.Listen to John describe how he felt intuition – in the form of a sick feeling in his gut – and a feeling that someone had punched him in the stomach.

6.John will also talk about self-speak – the neurological phenomenon where we talk to ourselves during high consequence situations – only John doesn’t call it self-speak. I’ll let him explain.

7.How John’s entry the first two times were under the premise of assuming the risk of being a firefighter. Yet he admits his entry the third time – he was creating risk… not assuming it.

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

On-Line Academy

http://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Close Call Survivor Website

www.CloseCallSurvivor.com

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424

Hello and welcome to episode 21 of the Situational Awareness Matters radio show. I am 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 risk, high consequence environments.

The SAMatters mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to avoid bad outcomes.

I have a great interview coming up, so stay tuned for that. But before I introduce our guest, I’m uber excited to share with you an announcement about some really valuable features we are going to be adding for the benefit of the Situational Awareness Matters community.

First, as many of you know, about a year ago we launched the Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. The feedback from the students was awesome and we’ve taken your great ideas and rolled them into an updated version of the Academy. One of the features will allow a department to enroll their entire membership into the academy. Previously, the only enrollment option was for individuals. We are adding more video content and more audio content. The Academy is THE most affordable way to get your entire department dialed on the critical skills of developing and maintaining situational awareness while working in high risk, high consequence environments. So, watch for the announcement of the new Academy on the SAMatters website.

The current SAMatters website has a free membership where visitors can opt-in and receive a monthly newsletter. And thank you to the more than 3,000 visitors who have signed up for that free service. We are going to “up the game” to grow our membership community. Coming soon, new members will receive a FREE 90-day class that teaches the fundamentals of situational awareness. This class was previously sold for $99. It’s now going to be given to new members for free.

Current members will continue to receive the free newsletter. Coming soon, however, we are going to introduce a premium membership. And I’m REALLY excited about this. For an annual fee of $108 (that’s 9 a month)… premium members are going to receive:

- Monthly situational awareness audio and video messages

- Free Audio downloads of blog articles so you can listen to them on the fly.

- Free transcriptions of the podcast radio shows so you can reference the podcast radio show content in your teachings.

- Exclusive content in the monthly newsletter

- Significant discounts on all books and videos on the website.

- Ongoing discounts on Academy tuition

- Free Webinars

- Free access to an online mastermind forum

- Free teleseminars

- Access to my course outlines

- Access to exclusive interviews with thought leaders in health and safety.

- And… this is very cool… we are working on the technology that will allow premium members to sign up for… and attend select live classroom programs via streaming video or audio link-up

- All for $9 a month.

Watch the website for the announcement because when I roll this out I’m going to offer a REALLY good deal that will allow premium members to attend the Online Academy.

We have been working REALLY hard and listening to your great feedback about how to add value for our community and increase the ways you can improve your situational awareness. Watch for these exciting changes coming to Situational Awareness Matters.

On this episode I interview Sean Balantic. After serving 6 years active duty as a United States Marine, Sean served as a federal firefighter prior to being employed by the Rochester, New York Fire Department where he has served for almost 7 years. Sean is assigned as a firefighter on Truck 3. In this interview, Sean shares his close call survivor story where he was struck by a car at an incident scene and has been off-work for nearly 3 months. The lessons you’ll learn include:

1.Sean had all of his PPE with reflective trim on, the fire apparatus has all it’s warning lights on, and yet, the driver seemingly did not see the firefighter.

2.How important it is to be cautious of civilian vehicles while operating on roadway surfaces. And, while Sean believed he had strong situational awareness, he was still struck by the vehicle.

3.How surprised he was at how the stress of being hit by the vehicle threw off his mental capacities and impacted his rational judgment and decision making.

4.A review of some of the potential reasons why a person driving a vehicle may not see you. Some of them are obvious (distracted, fatigued, texting, impaired, etc.) But what if a person was blind. Blind? Yes, blind! This episode will explain how a driver can be blinded by something we do all the time at incident scenes.

FEATURE TOPIC

On 6/2/14 while on an emergency Sean was removing a pike pole from the rear of his truck when a car coming from the front to the rear of his apparatus, moving very quickly toward him. Using what he termed, good situational awareness, he anticipated and saw the car. As soon as the car cleared the rear bumper of the apparatus, it struck Sean.

Sean has been out of work for a little over two months now with lower back and hip problems. Even though he was struck, he believe that having good situational awareness prevented the incident from being an even worse outcome. As Sean noted, while you may have good situational awareness you many still not see bad things coming.

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

On-Line Academy

http://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/

Upcoming Events Schedule

http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/

Books and Videos (Store)

http://www.samatters.com/store/

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/

Close Call Survivor Website

www.CloseCallSurvivor.com

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

[email protected]

612-548-4424