Samatters Radio

If we’re being honest with ourselves, we know that not all team members are created equal. It is a situational awareness best practice to know the strengths (and weaknesses) of your team before engaging in high-risk, high-consequence activities.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com  

Because individuals and teams frequently operate in environments where there are multiple auditory inputs (e.g., radio traffic, face-to-face communications, ambient sounds, etc.) they are often forced to prioritize what they listen to (or don’t listen to). This can cause issues with situational awareness.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Arguably, to accomplish a mission, it would be very beneficial to have a shared set of goals that everyone understands and everyone is working on together in a unified way to accomplish. Shared goals can contribute to shared situational awareness – a common understanding of what is happening and what the plan of action entails – Answering questions like: What is being done and why? What is the strategy and why? What is each person’s role? How are the roles interconnected? It is easier to function as a team when the goals are well established and well communicated. But what happens when they’re not?   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Anyone who’s been frustrated knows it can consume a lot of your mental energy and thinking space. This can significantly impact your situational awareness. In fact, depending on the level of frustration, your brain can be hijacked by all-consuming thoughts about what is causing your angst. While operating in a high-risk, high-stress environment, frustration may draw your attention away from perceiving or understanding critical inputs that form awareness. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

We make assumptions every day. Some of them are accurate. Others are not. Assumptions occur when there is an absence of complete information. Such is the case at just about every high-risk, high-consequence event you must deal with. Let’s explore how we make assumptions. An assumption is a mental guess or estimate. In the absence of complete information, you are forced to fill in the missing information with your best guess. This guess is based on your collective knowledge (training, experience and an assessment of the current situation). The more training and experience you have and the better your assessment of the current situation, the more likely your assumptions are to be accurate (or close to accurate). Conversely, the less training and experience you have, the less likely your assumptions are to be accurate.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.co

We rationalize that because we are operating in conditions of stress and consequence, with urgency and a feeling of pressure to perform quickly, we can take shortcuts to our best practices. Some even go as far as to rationalize that we SHOULD shortcut our safety best practices when faced with conditions that are urgent. This episode explores how shortcuts, rewarded with successful outcomes can lead to normalization of deviance.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

The premise behind relationship bias is that we tend to be attracted toward (and like) people whom we know well and to whom we know share similar interests. The stronger our relationship with another person, the more likely we are to believe them when they tell us something. The weaker the relationship, the less likely we are to believe the other person.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

When everything goes as planned, your expectations are met and situational awareness is easily formed and sustained.  However, sometimes your expectations are violated. In other words, your beautifully constructed mental model of the outcomes of an event are flawed. When this happens, your brain can become overwhelmed with confusion. It can also lead to anger and frustration because your brain doesn’t like to be wrong. This, in turn, can impact your situational awareness.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In the early morning hours of January 17, 2016, Chesterfield County Fire & EMS responded to a residential fire on Wicklow Lane that would result in fire civilian fire fatalities, including 2 children. This three-part interview chronicles the event, the situational awareness challenges and the lessons learned from the first-in captain and the first arriving battalion chief. See the FULL interview on YouTube at:  https://youtu.be/M0KHehMIQXc Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In the early morning hours of January 17, 2016, Chesterfield County Fire & EMS responded to a residential fire on Wicklow Lane that would result in fire civilian fire fatalities, including 2 children. This three-part interview chronicles the event, the situational awareness challenges and the lessons learned from the first-in captain and the first arriving battalion chief.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In the early morning hours of January 17, 2016, Chesterfield County Fire & EMS responded to a residential fire on Wicklow Lane that would result in fire civilian fire fatalities, including 2 children. This three-part interview chronicles the event, the situational awareness challenges and the lessons learned from the first-in captain and the first arriving battalion chief.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Podcast Guest Jason Bonney jbonney@cjcfpd.org   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Jason Bonney has been with the Central Jackson Fire Protection District in Blue Springs, Missouri for 15 years where he serves as the Assistant Chief of Training.  Jason is working on his research paper for the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy. During the interview we talk about the connection between training and performing on high-risk events.     Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Podcast Guest Jason Bonney jbonney@cjcfpd.org   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Jason Bonney has been with the Central Jackson Fire Protection District in Blue Springs, Missouri for 15 years where he serves as the Assistant Chief of Training.  Jason is working on his research paper for the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy. During the interview we talk about the connection between training and performing on high-risk events.    Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Podcast Guest Jason Bonney jbonney@cjcfpd.org   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Christo Motz is an International Consultant on Survival and Resilience. As a board member he writes articles for the Crisis Response Journal on topics related to self-reliance, survival and community safety during a crisis.  In this episode Christo interviews Dr. Gasaway in preparation for an article his is writing for the Journal.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Christo Motz Email: info@fylgjur.com Website: www.fylgjur.com/en   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Christo Motz is an International Consultant on Survival and Resilience. As a board member he writes articles for the Crisis Response Journal on topics related to self-reliance, survival and community safety during a crisis.  In this episode he interviews Dr. Gasaway in preparation for an article his is writing for the Journal.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Christo Motz Email: info@fylgjur.com Website: www.fylgjur.com/en   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

Herd mentality occurs when individuals group together and follow each other for inexplicable reasons. This is sometimes referred to as the “mob mentality” and is observed during riots. When one-person yells loudly and charges forward, the herd (or mob) follows. This episode discusses how herd mentality might impact situational awareness and decision making at emergency scenes.   Notable Near-Miss Episodes   17 – Doug Abernathy – double fatal 18 – Sean Dolan - Flashover 19 – Steven Hough – Shot in the face 21 – Sean Balantic – Struck by a car 22 & 23 – John Lightly – Flashover 33 – Adam Farrar – 2 near misses at one fire 35 & 36 – Lionel Crowther – double fatal 42 – Steven Page – lost & disoriented during an evac order 43 & 44 – Scott Burnette – Death of Captain Jeff Bowen 45 – Dave Martin – Wildfire burn over 53 – Brian Mulligan – Contact with an electric line 55 – Jason Corthell – Structural collapse 57 – Jeff Cheshire – Over run by fire conditions 64 – Nick Miller – Two near-miss events on

On December 18, 2017 an Amtrak train bound for Portland from Seattle derailed on a busy overpass on Interstate 5 in DuPont, Washington. This interview is Chief Creekmore’s first hand perspective of the incident. He discusses the complexity of an incident that resulted in 3 fatalities and nearly 100 victims transported to area hospitals.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In October I was in Chesapeake to deliver two-days of situational awareness training and I caught up with one of my life-long friends, Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief, John DiBacco. John and I served together on our first fire department in Weirton, West Virginia.  During the interview we talked about the process of after-action reviews John uses to gather and share lessons with his crews.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In September I was in Chesapeake to deliver two-days of situational awareness training and I caught up with one of my life-long friends, Norfolk Assistant Fire Chief, John DiBacco. John and I served together on our first fire department in Weirton, West Virginia.  During the interview we talked about the process of after-action reviews John uses to gather and share lessons with his crews.   Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424

In reading casualty reports you will often see issues related to communications as a contributing factor. Miscommunications, lack of communications or too much radio traffic (to include overloaded radio channels) are often cited. It is the last of these issues I want to address. There is an inherent cognitive consequence from too much communications that can impact situational awareness. Essentially, you can stop listening… and it doesn’t happen on purpose. Our sponsor: Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com   Intro music Safety Dance (1982) Men Without Hats GMC - Virgin Records Licensed by BMI Music   Situational Awareness Matters! website www.SAMatters.com   Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/   Contact Rich Gasaway www.RichGasaway.com Support@RichGasaway.com 612-548-4424